Hells Bells
by Lady-Annabeth-Crowley
Summary: When Elena is resurrected after Klaus' ritual, something goes wrong. She sees visions of a man in hell being tortured. Instead of staying in Mystic Falls, she decides to leave to help this man. Little did she know that she would be sucked into a whole new world of supernatural beings. Rated M for violence, language, and sexual content because it's Dean Winchester. Elena/Dean
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Just a few things to help you out with reading this possibly confusing story:**

**1. This starts just after 'As I Lay Dying' in the TVD universe and just before 'Lazarus Rising' in the Supernatural universe. Klaus has just broken the curse and Dean has been sent to hell by Lilith.**

**2. Jeremy isn't having any problems with his resurrection (i.e. he isn't seeing Anna and Vicki ghosts).**

**3. I am changing the lore of the doppelganger a bit in this story (making it more interesting). After all she is a supernatural being and with that should come some better abilities than just being sacrificed for Klaus. You'll figure them out as Elena figures them out.**

**4. There will be no Salvatore love triangle in this story! I don't hate the Salvatores but they are not Elena's love interests in this fanfiction. This story is Dean/Elena all the way and Elena will be badass in a lot of ways. With that being said, the Salvatores aren't going to be villains in this story either. Other than the fact that Stefan is being all influenced by Klaus. They might be assholes sometimes but they'll still be our Salvatores.**

**5. This story is going to take place more in the Supernatural universe than the TVD one. Just because I always write about the TVD universe and I want to explore other options. It will be fun.**

**6. If you're reading this story, please please review because I'm not so sure about whether or not anyone will even care about it. PLEASE REVIEW!**

**7. The story is named after 'Hell's Bells' by AC/DC. First of all because I love AC/DC. Second of all, because I am writing about Supernatural and Dean and it just fits.**

* * *

It had been two months. An entire two months since Stefan disappeared off to who knows where with Klaus. Two months since Damon was cured of his werewolf bite. Two months since she kissed him. If it were up to her, she would forget about the whole thing. She thought he was dying and she felt a rush of… something. It was hard to explain. But she had to try about a thousand times when Bonnie and Caroline kept questioning her about it. It didn't help that the kiss was the only thing she talked about with her two best friends.

Bonnie was busy with her dad's family out of town and Caroline was always with Tyler helping him through his transitions and doing couple-y things despite the fact that they refused to acknowledge that they were basically together. Damon had been involved with Andy and refusing to accept any of the hints towards Stefan's location that Sheriff Forbes gave them. Jeremy was working at the Grill and spending a lot of time either shut up in his room with loud music playing or with Matt being best friends with him.

If Elena didn't know her ex-boyfriend and the fact that Jeremy was exhibiting no other symptoms, she would have thought that her little brother was back on drugs. Alaric was the only one who was really there and that was just because he was constantly at home drinking and planning his lessons for the next year. Anything to take his mind off of Jenna's death. As everyone was busy doing everything, no one really had a chance to learn about her dreams.

They'd become so real and terrifying that she was afraid to go to bed sometimes. If they were about Klaus or Stefan, she would tell someone but they weren't. She didn't even know whom they were about. They took place in hell, that much she knew for sure. It was always the same person in the dream. A poor man that Elena always wished that she could save. She was sure that if he wasn't constantly screaming in pain and pleading for someone to save him, he would be a handsome person. He always either screamed at her to save him or one name, Sam. She had no idea who Sam was but he was obviously important to the man.

That night, Jeremy was still at the Grill and Alaric had already passed out on the couch so Elena was left by herself. She piled her hair on top of her head after she changed into her pajamas. As she walked back into her room from brushing her teeth, she checked her phone for messages automatically, used to doing it it for two months now. She knew that there wasn't a big chance of Stefan leaving her a message but she always hoped that she would get at least something to let her know that he was still alive.

It was also something to prolong her getting into bed. The dreams started the night after Stefan disappeared and Damon was cured. They weren't nearly as graphic or terrifying then as they were now. It was just an image of the man weeping and pleading for death. They progressed into the heart-wrenching, blood-curdling, horror fests that they were now. Every morning when she woke up, instead of writing down her daily thoughts in her diary, she wrote down every detail of the dreams. Elena looked around for anything else to do but there was nothing and her body was starting to complain about being kept up so late.

Tonight more than ever, she didn't want to go to bed. It felt like something had changed. She would see a whole new horrible thing in her dreams, that much she knew. Finally she switched off the lights and dragged herself to her bed, curling up and keeping her eyes open as long as she could until she drifted off into sleep.

* * *

_It started out much the same. She was flying through a dark, red tinted place as if she was a wisp of smoke. She ended up in the same room. It immediately became clear what was different. The man tied up to a dozen different chains was not the same man that she became accustomed to. But he stared up at her with the same crazed look as the other man._

"_Help me!" he cried as the torturer slid a knife across his throat effortlessly._

_Elena couldn't say a word, she'd learned that. All she could do was watch as the taunting man began to slice up and down his arms with surgeon like precision._

"_Please help. Why aren't you helping me?" she'd heard it before, the anger and confusion over why she wasn't doing anything, just hovering._

_Suddenly the torturer stopped and slowly looked up to see her there. Finally, for the first time, she was able to make noise. Instead of talking, Elena let out one long scream when she saw who it was. It was the man who'd previously been tied up. The one who would always plead for her help before. He'd been upgraded to the one who caused the same unimaginable pain that he'd experienced himself._

_She felt herself yanked backwards out of the room and she was glad for the relief from being forced to watch as her poor man became something terrible. Her scream still echoed around her, her lungs burning as she continued to wail loudly._

* * *

Alaric and Jeremy were used to it. As she never really told them what her dreams were about, they assumed that her screams every night stemmed from nightmares about Klaus or Stefan. They spoke with Bonnie about it and she said that it might have something to do with her basically being resurrected from the dead. They knew that they had to do something. So along with Bonnie and Caroline, they came up with a plan.

"You have to leave Mystic Falls." Jeremy announced one day when she came down for breakfast.

She turned to face them with wide eyes.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"It's not safe here. Not for you. What if Klaus comes back and finds you alive? He'll kill all of us. I know he will." Alaric said, talking through the speech they'd rehearsed..

"What's going on, guys? It's been two months since Klaus left and you haven't said a single word about this." She questioned them.

"We've been thinking about it, though. Elena we know about the nightmares you're having every night. It's not healthy. We just want you to go to Colorado where some of our family lives. I think it's the best thing for you." Jeremy assured her

Elena stared at them, trying to figure out why exactly they were bringing this up now. Amazingly enough, there was a voice inside of her head telling her to do as they said. Her mind was made up instantly. She would leave Mystic Falls all right, but she wasn't going to Colorado. She was going to find out exactly what the hell was going on with her dreams. But they couldn't know that she wasn't going to Colorado. So she would have to do a helluva job acting like she was.

"I think you're right." she admitted, nodding as her act began.

Damon was going to be the hardest to convince.

* * *

"What if Klaus finds out you're alive and has one of his witchy friends do a spell to locate you?" the blue eyed vampire demanded as Elena heaved the suitcase into her trunk.

"That's why Bonnie gave me this." Elena tugged on the chain around her neck with an old style pendant on the end.

"What is that? Filled with vervain?" Damon scoffed.

"No, it deters any witch from finding me with magic." she said, glaring up at him as she walked into the house to retrieve the rest of her bags.

"Wait a minute, any witch? Does that include our dear Bennett?" Elena almost felt like turning around and slapping his proud face.

"Yes, Damon. But I'll be in Colorado so there's no need for Bonnie to need to use a spell to locate me." Elena lied easily as she pulled a duffle bag onto her shoulder and her purse onto her other shoulder.

It was the last of her things. There had been a few arguments over how she was going to get to Colorado. Elena finally won out when she told everyone she was taking her car. It was really Aunt Jenna's red Mini Cooper but it had been sitting in the driveway for two months so it wound up being claimed by Elena. She also didn't want anyone to get the suspicion that she wasn't going to Colorado by taking a plane elsewhere. Especially since she wasn't actually going to Colorado.

"What if you get kidnapped?" Damon asked.

"Who would kidnap me in Colorado?" she laughed as she tromped down the stairs.

"You don't think there are vampires in Colorado?" he demanded.

"I'm sure there are. But considering that I will be way under the radar, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to know who I am." She nodded as she pushed the duffle bag into the trunk and slammed it shut.

Then she threw her purse in the passenger seat and turned to look at Damon.

"I'm going whether you like it or not, Damon. I have a whole stash of vervain so that I can take it every single day. I have four stakes, one in my purse, one in the console of my car, and two in my suitcases. I have a vervain dart in my purse as well. Bonnie is keeping me well hidden from Klaus and anyone else who might try to find me. I will be fine." She said.

Damon just stared down at her. Just as he was about to say something else, Jeremy, Alaric, Caroline, Bonnie, Matt, and Tyler walking out of the house interrupted him. She hugged them all one by one, assuring them that she would call. She was lying, once again. It was better if they had no idea what was going on with her. She was disappearing off the map for their safety. If Klaus ever came back and compelled each and every one of these people to ask where she was, they would have no idea and that was a good thing.

"Be safe, ok? Let us know when you get to Colorado." Jeremy said as she hugged him.

"I'm sorry I have to leave, Jer." She said softly.

He drew back and shook his head.

"You need some time of normal, Elena. Some time that you can actually be safe. I want you to have that." her little brother said.

Little did he know that she wasn't going to have any time of normal considering that she was chasing dreams that she had every single night.

"I think I will." She nodded, lying to make him feel better.

She kissed his cheek and then turned to Damon, who was leaning against her car with a sour look on his face.

"Please try to accept this, Damon. It's what I need." She sighed, sensing more argument about to come out of him.

"You don't have to go, Elena. I'll protect you here." He said softly, finally sounding like something other than a bitter jackass.

"I do have to go, Damon. That doesn't mean I won't ever be back. It's not forever." She assured him, hoping that she would be able to keep that promise.

"It better not be." he nodded.

"Just let me go, Damon. I'll be just fine." She assured him.

"I'm not so sure. You call me if there's anything you need. I'll be there." he said warily.

"I know." She agreed, leaning forward to kiss his cheek.

"Take care of everyone, ok?"

Damon nodded at her request and she smiled at everyone as she climbed into the Mini Cooper. She waved at them all as she drove away. She couldn't help the tears that escaped her as she drove out of the town that she'd been in her entire life. Who knew when she would be back?

* * *

**Author's Note: Hi readers. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. The next one will be coming up soon and will be much longer. We meet Dean, and possibly Sam and Bobby. Maybe even Castiel if we're all lucky. The story will be following the events of season 4 of Supernatural but won't be following the ones of season 3 of TVD for my own storywriting reasons (Supernatural is more interesting to write about with the apocalypse and all that). Please review if you are reading because it will help me a ton!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Raven176, slayerdiaries, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Crh, nluvwithemmettcullen, and the guest for reviewing and to everyone who read.**

**Wow! I was shocked and very pleased to see the quick response to this story so of course I'm going to continue it! I'm excited and I hope you are too!**

**To those who are asking, yes there will be more TVD characters in this story than just Elena. They will pop up occasionally and be a part of the storyline.**

* * *

It had been two more months. Elena remembered the obvious hint in the direction she should be traveling that she received as she drove out of Mystic Falls.

_The tears had just dried up when her phone buzzed in the cupholder. Instead of a text or phonecall, the Maps app was open. The little flag was dropped at a small town about thirty miles outside of Chicago named Braidwood. She stared at it for a moment before nodding and setting it as her destination. That was a pretty distinct sign if she ever saw one considering she'd been wondering where she was heading just moments before. It was about an eleven-hour drive so she prepared herself to drive the whole way instead of having to waste money by stopping a hotel and wasting the money. She also withdrew all of her money out of her bank account at the next town, closing it down._

_If she was really going to try to keep herself under the radar and everyone from finding her, she couldn't leave behind an obvious trail by using her credit card. When she reached the small town, she found that it was quiant and nice. Though she still didn't know why she was there. When she found a small motel named the Sun Motel. When she talked with the owner, he informed her that if she planned on staying there for a while, he could let her have a room for twenty dollars a week. Elena was shocked by the older man's kindness but he assured her that it was that way for everyone._

_When she received no more signs that she was supposed to go anywhere else, she agreed to the arrangment and settled herself in the clean and peaceful motel. After that, applying for a name change at the local courthouse wasn't hard as she thought it would be. Though going by Elena Peterson felt strange considering that it was the last name that Isobel used when she gave birth to Elena. She was able to open a new bank account, though. It made her feel much better not to be carrying all of her money around in a yellow envelope._

_After a few days of doing nothing, she decided that she might as well apply for a job so that her money didn't run out too quickly. At the local Italian restaurant, Antonia Restaurant, they gave her a job almost as soon as she asked for it._

So there Elena was, working six hour shifts every day at the restaurant and waiting. She still had the dreams every night but she had no idea where else to go. It was a nice little town and she had gotten to know the owner of the motel and the sweet Italian couple who owned the restaurant quite well. She knew that she was somewhat of a mystery to the town as she didn't really share anything about herself. At the two month mark, she was admittedly getting a little tired of sitting around and waiting. She huffed as she sat down on the bed.

"Anything? Any hint as to where I'm supposed to go next?" she demanded, feeling ridiculous talking to the air.

When there was no reply, she groaned and fell back onto the bed, pulling a pillow over her face. Her phone suddenly beeped and she half expected it to be an enraged text or voicemail from Damon demanding to know where the hell she was and why the hell she disappeared. Then there were the concerned texts from Bonnie and Caroline wondering if she was still alive. The terrified voicemails from Jeremy were the worst. He was afraid that he'd lost yet another family member. That's why, once a week, Elena would send an email from a brand new email address to Jeremy assuring everyone that she was still, in fact, living and breathing. There was nothing else in the email. No explanation. No hint as to where she was. Just four words. I'm alive. Love you.

He would send emails back begging for her to tell him what was going on but she wouldn't answer them. Elena knew that they were probably going crazy looking for her but she also knew they wouldn't find her. Not with Bonnie's necklace around her neck. So, steeling herself for whatever message they had in store for her that day, she picked up her phone from the bedside table and unlocked it. She was surprised to see a picture of a Pontiac car pulled up on the Internet.

"Really? This is your hint? Am I supposed to buy a damn car?" she demanded of whoever she was talking to.

There was no answer but she didn't really expect for there to be. Elena sighed and sat there staring at the picture for a full fifteen minutes, trying to figure out exactly what it meant.

"Pontiac cars aren't made anymore. I don't think there would be a Pontiac dealer anywhere near here. So is that what my guy drives? A Pontaic?" she questioned, throwing the phone on the bed.

Of course, it chose that moment to beep. She picked it up and opened it to see a map of Illinois on the screen.

"I'm already in Illinois. Whoever you are, you are really vague! Can't you just tell me what you want?" she demanded.

Nothing. So Elena went to her laptop and typed in the two words that served as her hint. Pontiac. Illinois. Imagine her surprise when a town called Pontiac in Illinois came up. She rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, exasperated.

"Couldn't you just say that outright?" she demanded, picking up her keys as she walked out of the room.

It was actually a bit hard to inform the owners of the Italian restaurant that she was quitting and leaving town. She'd grown to like them quite a lot. She waited until the next morning to deliver the news to the owner of the motel along with her room key. Her stuff was already packed up and in the car when she walked into the reception area.

"Are you sure you must leave, Miss Elena?" Larry asked, sounding a bit sad.

"I've been called elsewhere, Mr. Hutchinson. I wish I didn't have to leave too." She said, smiling at him.

"Well I would hate to keep you from being where you're supposed to be. I suppose God has a plan for you." he replied.

Elena thought about it as she hugged him goodbye. She knew that it was ridiculous but in all that happened to her since her parents' death, she never thought about God having a hand in any of it. Was it possible that he was leading her to her destination and sending her the visions of the man in hell? If so, he wasn't doing a great job of keeping her informed. She felt so out of the loop and alone, especially since she was avoiding contact with her friends and family.

As she pulled out of Braidwood and set her GPS for Pontiac, Illinois, she had a moment of weakness that led to her dialing a number for the first time in two months.

"Elena?" Jeremy's voice immediately said.

"Hey Jer." She said softly, trying not to cry at the desperation in his voice.

"Elena where are you?" he demanded.

"I'm not going to tell you that. I'm sorry. I just wanted to hear your voice for a few minutes. I can't talk for long because I'm driving." She said sadly.

"Elena please come home. We've been going crazy not knowing what's happened to you." he pleaded with her.

"Jeremy I can't. I am perfectly safe. I've been staying in a small town working at a small restaurant and it's been boring as hell but safe. I promise." She assured him.

He sighed and she heard someone talking in the background.

"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked.

"I'm positive." She said, smiling at his concern.

"Ok, Ric wants to talk to you." he said.

"As long as it's not Damon. I don't really want to hear one of his rants. I've heard enough of them on my voicemail." She joked.

"Yeah, I bet." Jeremy agreed.

She heard a shuffling noise.

"Elena?" Alaric questioned, sounding unsure.

"Hey, Ric." She replied.

"Well since I already know you're not going to tell me where you are, I'm just going to make sure you're all right." he said, sounding resigned.

"I'm perfectly fine." She assured him.

"Everyone's going insane without you, you know that right?" he asked.

"By that you mean Damon is threatening to put out an APB on my license plate?" she asked.

Alaric chuckled.

"Yeah, that's pretty accurate." He agreed.

"I can't talk for much longer, Ric. Take care of Jer, ok? Tell everyone I love them." She said.

"I will. Be safe, Elena." he replied.

"You too." She said, not bothering to tell him that she was hunting a guy down who was in hell and following the directions of an unknown entity who was possibly God in order to do so.

When he hung up, she turned on the radio and smiled when she heard the music blare out proudly. It was easy to pretend that she wasn't going on a sort of a hunting trip when she was acting so carelessly in her car driving down the highway in Illinois.

* * *

As it turned out, Pontiac, Illinois was not far from Braidwood. The drive was only about an hour and she was about forty-five minutes into it. It went pretty normally until she came upon a gas station that looked sort of abandoned except for one car outside of it. Automatically, she looked down at her gas guage even though she knew it would be almost full. She'd gotten a full tank of gas in Braidwood, after all. So imagine her surprise when it showed that the tank was almost empty. Elena let out a cry of panic and swerved into the gas station. When her car came to a stop, she stared at the gauge on the dashboard, even tapping it to see if something was wrong with it.

When she turned the car off and back on, it beeped and flashed the empty gas signal at her. Her eyebrows knitted together and she huffed, turning her car off. It was going to piss her the hell off if she had to get her car looked at because it was leaking gas. That would cost way too much money that she was willing to spend at once on her limited budget. She pulled her car up to one of the pumps but saw that it was one that had to be paid for inside and operated by the attendant. In other words, it was as old as Damon.

She groaned and muttered about it being 'just her luck' as she got out and slammed the door shut. With her wallet in hand, Elena didn't hesitate to kick her tire as she passed and stomped up to the gas station. If it was really abandoned like it seemed to be, she was officially fucked. When she got to the door and saw that the glass in it was broken, she pushed it open slowly. Her relief was intense when she heard water running from the restroom behind the counter. Someone was there. She walked into the store and saw three empty bottles of water sitting on the counter. When no one came out of the bathroom, she peeked around the counter and into the open door to see a man lifting his shirt up and peering at his tanned and quite ripped abdomen.

"Oh! Wow I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, not sure why her reaction was so embarrassed as she backed away from the counter and turned as if to give the stranger his privacy.

She'd only seen his face for a moment but it suddenly registered in her mind that it was familiar. Very familiar. Scarily familiar. Like he'd been in her dreams for four months. When she heard his footsteps coming out of the bathroom, she didn't move as she was frozen. It almost seemed unreal. Had she really found her mystery dream hell guy in an abandoned gas station. Her eyes went up to the ceiling and she wondered what to do now.

"Hello?" she heard him ask.

His voice was different than she'd heard it in her dreams. Instead of being full of fear or taunting as he was tortured or torturing, it was low and gravelly. She looked down at her wallet in her hands. What the hell was she supposed to do?

"You all right?" he asked.

She finally worked up the urge to move and slowly turned around. He stared at her with wide eyes when he caught sight of her face.

"You." he said, shocked.

"Hi." She said meekly, her voice small as she wasn't really sure of what else to say.

Suddenly, as if he'd gotten over his shock, he advanced on her angrily.

"What the hell are you, huh?" he demanded, causing her to back up until she was against the wall with eyes as big as saucers.

"What?" she asked.

"Demon? Ghost? A damn hallucination cause I climbed out of that grave?" he growled, glaring at her with striking green eyes.

"You c-climbed out of a grave?" Elena questioned.

Put her against Klaus, the oldest and most powerful vampire who was fully intent on sacrificing her, she could tell him to go to hell. Put her up against this normal looking, dirt covered, handsome, buff, man from her hell dreams, she couldn't say a single confident thing. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I said, what the hell are you?" he said through gritted teeth.

"Erm… human?" she said questioningly.

For God's sakes, he was making her question her own status as a human. But then again, it was sort of a lie. She wasn't really human. She was a doppelganger but he didn't have to know that considering he probably didn't even know what it was. Unless he was a vampire. Why had she been so stupid as to go after her dream guy? He scoffed and shook his head.

"Do you really expect me to believe that? I see you hovering above me while I'm being tortured in hell and now I see you in an abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere just after I climb out of a grave not thirty minutes ago? And you expect me to believe it's all just a coincidence?" he demanded.

"It's not. I was led here by my phone." She said quickly, not sure why he would believe this if he didn't believe she was human-ish.

He glared at her.

"What's your name?" he asked.

Finally she managed to straighten her back up and get a little bit of her confidence back.

"What's yours?" she shot back, brushing her hair out of her face.

"I asked you first." He replied childishly, a bit of a southern accent coming out in his voice.

"Well I don't really care." She shot back.

"You were in my hell!"

"You invaded my dreams!"

That shut him up.

"What do you mean?" he asked, no longer hostile towards her as he processed her words.

Elena sighed and pushed away from the wall, causing him to step backwards.

"When you saw me in your… hell… I was dreaming. I've had dreams about you every night since…" she trailed off, thankfully catching herself before informing him that she was sacrificed by a thousand-year-old vampire.

"Since?" he questioned.

"Since four months ago." she amended.

"Four months?" he questioned, his eyes widening.

She nodded slowly.

"It's… September?" he questioned.

"Yes, it is." She confirmed.

He sighed and winced as he moved his arm.

"Are you hurt?" she asked instantly, her automatic concern coming out of her.

He looked up at her with surprise.

"Not badly. My shoulder just hurts." He said.

Before she could help it, as if she was on autopilot, she started forward and pushed the sleeve of his black t-shirt up. He began to protest but was cut off by her loud gasp. On his upper arm, there was a handprint burned bright red into the skin. It was blistered and looked extremely painful.

"I'd call that a pretty bad injury." She said, wondering if she had any ointment in her luggage to help him.

"What the hell is that?" he said, staring down at it.

"Your guess is as good as mine." She replied.

Their eyes met, staring deep into the others as if to see into their very soul.

"I believe you, that you're human. I don't know why." He said.

"Well that's good. But do you mind telling me what you meant when you asked if I was a demon?" she asked.

He looked like he was at a loss for words.

"Um, demons. They exist. They can possess humans so that they look human and act human but they aren't really… human." He said.

She stared at him as she processed what he was saying. Part of her said to brush what he was saying off as nonsense. But then again, if vampires, werewolves, witches, and doppelgangers could exist, why couldn't demons and ghosts? If she could see into hell in her dreams, why couldn't this man be telling the truth?

"Makes sense." Elena allowed, nodding once.

"Wait, seriously?" he questioned.

"Mm-hm." She confirmed.

"Why is that?" he asked.

Before she could lie, something deep inside of her mind told her to tell this mysterious man the truth. After all, she'd practically known him for four months.

"Because if vampires, werewolves, and witches exist, why can't demons?" she voiced her thoughts.

He looked shocked.

"I'm Elena, by the way." she threw out there before she slid past him to look at the food that was abandoned in the store.

Grabbing a plastic bag, she filled it up with food and water. After all, if this place was abandoned, why would she leave behind the food?

"How do you know about that stuff?" he asked.

She turned to look at him with a tilted head.

"I'm from Mystic Falls. How do you know about it?" she questioned.

"I'm Dean Winchester." He said as if that was an answer.

But then again, she'd used her hometown as her answer.

"Well, Dean Winchester. You've climbed out of a grave after being in hell for four months. What would you like to do next?" she asked, handing him a candy bar.

If he was in hell for four whole months, he had to have missed chocolate a lot.

"I want to call my brother." he said instantly.

"Is that Sam?" she asked curiously, remembering the name he yelled in her dreams.

He looked at her with a pained face for a moment.

"Yeah." He said in an unemotional voice.

But she wasn't stupid. Elena knew that it took a lot of work for him to cover up the pain he felt. She had a feeling that Dean's life hadn't been a piece of cake before his sojourn to hell.

"I have a phone in my car. You can use it." she suggested.

"Oh. Thanks." He said.

Their conversation was awkward again as if they hadn't just admitted to each other that they knew of a world beyond the normal world that everyone else knew. A world with supernatural creatures beyond belief. He began to walk around the store picking up food that she wasn't able to fit into her bag. When he passed by a shelf, a mischeivous smirk appeared on his face. When he reached down to pick up whatever amused him, she felt her curious face slip into a disgusted scowl.

"Ew." She accidentally let slip as she saw the porn magazine.

He looked up at her, startled, as if he'd forgotten that she was watching him or even there.

"Sorry." He said instantly, putting the magazine down and having the decency to look ashamed.

She didn't reply, not really knowing what to say in that situation. He avoided her eyes as he walked to the cash register to open it.

"You're going to steal the money?" Elena asked, surprised at his actions.

"You're stealing their food. How is that any different?" he asked, pulling the money out with a relieved sparkle in his eye that hadn't been there before.

It looked so natural for him to take the money out of the register and shove it in his pocket, like he did it all the time. For all she knew, he did do it all the time. It was just occuring to her that she didn't know this man at all. Why was she being so friendly with him when she barely knew anything about him? Suddenly the television switched on to a static screen with the white noise, startling her into a slight squeal of panic.

Dean reached over to flip it off and that's when she saw the bloody scratches and bruises on his hands. He'd dug out of a grave. Of course that would leave marks. Luckily she had a small first aid kit. Immediately after the television shut off, the radio switched on. Elena stared around with wide eyes. This wasn't normal. Could this be a ghost or something like Dean said? Maybe a demon? The television switched on once again and Elena was getting officially scared. Once again, facing vampires was no big deal. But a little weird technology stuff happening and she was ready to run out of that place and not look back.

Suddenly Dean marched over to a shelf and picked up a container of salt. She watched with confusion as he opened it. A slight ringing noise filled the air and she watched as he lined one of the windows with salt. The ringing noise got louder and louder until they both groaned and dropped everything to cover their ears. Elena let out a cry of pain as it radiated through her head. Both of them dropped to their knees as the glass began to shatter around them. It rained around them as they both shouted loudly at the combination of the noise and the glass breaking.

Elena felt a few shards cut into her skin but it wasn't the worst pain she experienced. Suddenly the noise was over as quickly as it began. The pain slowly ebbed away as they pulled themselves onto their feet and looked around with shock.

"You okay?" Dean asked.

"What the hell just happened?" she breathed, ignoring his question as she was obviously not okay after that.

"I have no idea. But we need to get the fuck out of this place." he said, bending down to grab his bag and gesturing for her to leave.

Elena grabbed her stuff as well and they stumbled out of the tiny store and into the blistering heat.

"That's your car?" he asked, pointing to the Mini Cooper.

"Nope, it's abandoned. That's my car." She said sarcastically, pointing to the other broken down car in the parking lot.

He shot her an annoyed look and she fought the urge to grin teasingly at him as they walked to her car. As soon as they were inside, she pulled her purse off of the passenger seat to allow him to sit in it. Then she handed him her phone after she turned on her car and got the air conditioner blasting.

"Call whoever you need to. I'm going to get something from my bag." She said, climbing out and going to the trunk to dig through her suitcase.

When she retrieved the first aid kit, she went back to the front and sat in the driver's seat, digging through it to get the ointment. She found it and turned to him to see him dialing another number.

"No luck?" she asked, pushing his sleeve up much to his astonishment.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, jerking away from her.

"Oh stop being such a baby. I'm putting ointment on your handprint." She said, rolling her eyes at him as she yanked him back towards her and pushed the sleeve up the rest of the way gently.

Then, very slowly and softly, she rubbed the ointment into the handprint. Her eyes lifted to meet his as she doctored his wound. His eyes darted away from hers and he looked down to press talk and lifted the phone to his ear.

"Bobby?" he questioned when someone on the other end answered.

Elena finished his wound and covered it with a bandage before reaching out to hesitantly take his hand in hers.

"It's me." Dean said as his eyes flickered back to hers and he allowed her to settle his hand on the center console of the car.

"Who's me?" she heard distantly from the other end as she spreaded more ointment on the wounds.

"Dean." He said simply.

A dial tone sounded from the phone and she looked up to see him staring at it with surprise. Then he redialed and she lifted his hand up to wrap a bandage around his bruised and skinned up knuckles. As the phone rang once more, she forced him to switch hands as she began to fix up the other.

"Who is this?" the voice asked, sounding slightly angry.

"Bobby, listen to me..." Dean began.

"This ain't funny. Call again and I'll kill ya." The voice threatened before the dial tone sounded once again.

Dean sighed and hung up the phone as she finished doctoring up his hand. He handed it to her and ran his fingers through his dirt-ridden hair.

"What now?" she asked, unsure of what to do.

"I gotta get to Sioux Falls." He groaned.

"South Dakota?" Elena questioned with surprise.

"Well Bobby doesn't believe that it's me and I need to talk to him to figure out what the hell's going on!" he explained to her.

"Oh, all right." she said, turning to her phone to type in Sioux Falls into the Maps.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked, confused.

"Finding the best route to get there." she said simply, looking up at him.

"No no, you don't need to come with me." he said, shaking his head.

She stared at him for a moment, shocked.

"So you're just gonna take that clunker back there all the way to Sioux Falls which is… eight hours away all by yourself?" Elena asked skeptically, checking the length of time it took to drive there on her phone.

"Well… yeah?" he said questioningly.

"Like hell! I drove all the way here from Virginia because I knew that I had to find you or something! You are not just going to take off and leave me behind after I dreamed about your hell for four months and left everything behind!" she exclaimed.

He stared at her with wide eyes.

"Well I didn't exactly ask you to come." He said hesitantly.

"Well what was I supposed to do? Would you just have ignored those dreams if you were having them every single damn night?" she demanded.

"I guess not. How did you find me anyways?" he asked.

"I don't know. Something led me here using my phone. I can't really explain it but if you let me drive you to Sioux Falls, I'll try my best." She bribed him, really hoping he didn't leave her behind.

She really wanted answers and she felt like sticking with him was the only way she was going to get some. He looked at her as if he really wanted to say no so she widened her eyes slightly and tried to look as helpless as she could.

"These dreams have scared me, Dean. I need to know exactly why I've been having them and I can't figure it out on my own. Please." She pleaded.

He sighed and shook his head.

"Fine." He grumbled.

"Great! But… oh shit." She let the expletive slip.

"What?" he asked, sounding panicked.

"I don't have any gas." She moaned, letting her head fall onto the steering wheel.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"That's why I pulled into the gas station in the first place. I got gas in Braidwood but when I got here, it was almost empty." She explained.

"Your gas tank is almost full." He said, pointing at the gas gauge." She looked up and saw that he was right.

The red stick was almost on the F line instead of the E line it was on when she pulled into the gas station.

"What the hell?" she said.

"I don't know what is going on but we need to get to Bobby's to see what exactly is going on." Dean decided.

"Sioux Falls." Elena agreed, pulling on her seatbelt and turning on the music.

Dean grimaced slightly when the pop song blared out of the radio.

"If you're going to be judgmental about the music, why don't you pick it?" she snapped.

"Gladly."

She gaped at him, not really having expected him to accept her sarcastic offer.

* * *

The eight-hour ride was strange. First of all, Dean insisted on listening to 1970's and 80's rock the entire time. Then Elena explained to him everything that led her to the gas station and he agreed that he'd never heard anything like it. It was like an unspoken agreement that neither of them talked about their lives before her dreams started or their families or anything. It was all of limits to both of them. When they reached the town of Sioux Falls, Dean directed her to a broken down automobile yard with a broken down looking house standing on it.

"This is where your friend Bobby lives?" she asked, climbing out of the car hesitantly along with him.

"Yeah, don't worry. He's nice… sometimes." Dean explained.

Elena looked at him with wide eyes as they walked up to the door. He slammed his fist down on it a couple of times and it opened a few seconds later to reveal a gruff looking man with a baseball hat and a plaid shirt on that smelled like alcohol. He looked shocked to see Dean, so much so that he didn't even notice that she was standing behind him.

"Surprise." Dean sighed, smiling at the man who she assumed was Bobby.

She rolled her eyes at Dean. That was not the greeting you gave someone when you'd been dead for four months.

"I-I don't…" Bobby began to back away and Dean stepped inside the house.

"Yeah, me neither." Dean nodded. "But here I am."

Elena remained out on the porch, letting them have the moment to get used to what was happening. When she saw Bobby pick up the silver knife, she shrieked as he swung it at Dean who ducked at the last minute. They scuffled for a minute before Bobby slammed his fist into Dean's face and sent him stumbling backwards.

"Bobby! It's me!"

"My ass!" Bobby brushed off, starting forward with the knife.

"Whoa wait!" Dean said, raising his hands.

He pushed a rolling chair between them.

"Your name is Robert Steven Singer. You became a hunter after your wife got possessed. You're about the closest thing I have to a father. Bobby… it's me." Dean said quickly.

Bobby paused for a moment and pushed the chair out of the way. thinking it was over, Elena hesitantly stepped into the house. But Bobby attacked Dean again and the fighting resumed.

"I am not a shapeshifter!" Dean growled, trying to wrestle the knife out of the older man's hand.

"Then you're a revenant!" Bobby shot back.

Dean finally wrestled the knife away and shoved Bobby backwards and away from him.

"All right. If I was either, could I do this with a silver knife?" he asked, pushing up his sleeve and slicing into his skin hesitantly.

"Dean?" Bobby questioned, finally getting it.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Dean sighed, exhausted by the fight as he walked forward slowly.

Bobby inhaled sharply and grabbed him in a tight hug. Elena couldn't help but smile as Dean hugged him back. When the older man drew away, they stared at each other for a moment.

"It's good to see you, boy." Bobby said, his voice full of emotion.

Then Bobby turned to finally catch sight of Elena.

"Who's this?" he asked, looking her up and down with surprised eyes.

Dean walked over to stand by her.

"This is Elena. Other than that, I'm not quite so sure. I'll tell you more later." he assured the man.

Elena smiled and waved slightly.

"Hi." She greeted.

"How did you bust out?" Bobby asked, staring at Dean.

"I don't know, I just woke up in a pine bo…" Dean was interrupted by Bobby throwing water on both him and Elena.

Dean turned and spat out the water that was thrown into his mouth as Elena gasped and attempted to wipe it off of her face. She was so surprised by the action that she didn't say a word. Was this a normal greeting for this man? Attack first, throw water on, ask questions later?

"I'm not a demon either, you know? Neither is Elena." Dean said, looking at Bobby with an annoyed face.

"Sorry. Can't be too careful." Bobby shrugged, not sounding apologetic at all.

Elena was even more confused. How could throwing water on someone prove they weren't a demon? She didn't want to stick around to find out. She sensed that these two men needed to speak alone and she needed to wipe her face clear of water.

"Is there a bathroom I can use?" she asked, her small, meek voice back.

"Yeah." Bobby directed her to one and she turned to walk into it.

After wiping her face off and pulled her hair back into a ponytail, she pulled out her phone and stared at the picture of her, Bonnie, and Caroline that was still her background. Part of her wished that she was still back in Mystic Falls with her friends and family but the other part of her was yearning to find out everything she could about this new world she'd managed to discover. When she exited the bathroom, she heard their low voices coming from the office area she'd briefly seen. Instead of interrupting them, she went outside the still open door and sat on the porch so as not to seem nosy. About ten minutes later, she heard Dean calling her name. She stood and walked inside slowly, fully expecting for him to send her off now that he was reunited with Bobby.

"We found Sam. He's back in Pontiac." Dean said.

"Oh, that's good. I guess you'll go find him now." She nodded, fishing for her keys in her pocket.

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused for some reason.

"You won't go find him?" she questioned.

"No I will. But are you planning on staying here? I mean you can, Bobby won't mind." Dean said.

"I won't?" Bobby questioned.

"No, you won't." Dean confirmed to him.

Elena stared between them before focusing on Dean again.

"I thought that, since you got back to Bobby and you found Sam…" she trailed off.

"Elena I may have found them but we still have to figure out why the hell you were having those dreams and what the hell drew you to me. You're sticking with us until we do." Dean assured her.

Bobby's understanding look told her that Dean must have informed him of what happened with them.

"Oh, ok." She said, not arguing as she felt relief.

Because honestly she had no idea where she would go if Dean told her to go.

"So we're heading back to Pontiac. You mind leaving your car here? It's easier if we take Bobby's truck." Dean said.

"As long as it'll be safe, I don't care." She said, nodding at him.

"Great. Let's get on the road." Dean said, walking towards the door.

"No, you need a shower. There's still dirt all over you and in your wounds and they'll get infected if you don't wash off." she said automatically.

Dean turned to look at her before looking down at his dirty clothing.

"You're right." he agreed.

Bobby looked shocked as Dean walked out of the room and up the stairs.

"I ain't never seen him obey someone like that. You gotta teach me your ways." he said.

Elena flushed and shrugged.

"If you'd like to take a shower, there's another in a guest room." Bobby suggested.

"Really? That would be fantastic. Do you mind if I bring my stuff in and store it somewhere, too? I don't want it to be boiling in the car while we're gone." Elena explained.

"I don't mind one bit." He assured her, walking outside to help her carry in her things.

* * *

One shower and a change of clothes later, Elena felt ready to go. Her hair was braided over her shoulder to keep it out of the way and she was wearing simple jeans, converse, and a short sleeved form fitting dark blue t-shirt with a leather jacket with her just in case she got cold sometime in the near future. When she walked outside to see Bobby and Dean leaning over the back of Bobby's truck, she walked up to them and saw Bobby pull out an ax. She stopped short and watched as Dean picked up a gun.

"What is it you do again?" she asked hesitantly, not sure of whether or not she wanted the answer.

"We are hunters of all things supernatural." Dean said calmly, looking up at her to see her reaction.

"Oh, interesting." She nodded, twisting her hands together before she began walking again.

* * *

She climbed into the backseat of the truck, as Bobby was in the driver's seat and Dean the passenger's seat. He offered it to her but she refused so that the two could talk. She listened to them talk about what had been happening for the past few months but slowly the day's events were catching up with her as the sun set and she found herself drifting off into sleep.

She found herself being awoken by Dean leaning in and shaking her.

"Are we here?" she asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Yeah, we didn't want to leave you here asleep and have you wake up to find us gone." He explained.

"I'll come, if that's ok." She said, hesitating as she wondered if Dean wanted privacy to reunite with his brother.

"You should come." Dean agreed.

She nodded and slid out of the truck, following them into the hotel and up the stairs to a room at the end of the hallway. Music was blasting out of it and Elena watched as Dean knocked on the door. It opened to reveal brunette woman with minimal clothing on.

"So, where is it?" she demanded, looking between all of them with a confused expression.

"Where's what?" Dean asked.

"The pizza that takes two guys and a girl to deliver?" she said, her snotty tone rubbing Elena the wrong way.

"I think we got the wrong room." Dean said, raising his hands in surrender.

"Hey, is…" a man appeared, stopping short when he saw them.

He was rather tall and he had shaggy brown hair. His breath caught in his throat when he saw Dean and Elena assumed that they'd found Sam.

"Hey, ya, Sammy." Dean said.

Elena rolled her eyes once more. She would really have to work with the guy on his greetings. They sucked. He stepped into the apartment, past the snotty girl, to stand in front of his brother. Sam immediately attacked him with a knife just like Bobby had. The brunette screamed and Elena watched with alarm as Bobby stepped in to stop the fight.

"Who are you?" Sam shouted.

"Like you didn't do this!" Dean accused.

"Do what?"

"It's him! It's him, Sam! I've been through this already. It's really him." Bobby assured the enraged man, holding him back from attacking Dean again.

"But…" Sam said, breathing deeply.

"I know. I look fantastic, huh?" Dean said, smiling.

Sam's face suddenly became overcome with an emotion the opposite of the rage that had just been twisted into it. He lunged forward and grabbed Dean in a tight hug. Elena almost felt the need to avert her eyes as they hugged. It was full of emotion and she wanted to give them as much privacy as she could in that moment. As they pulled away and smiled at each other, both obviously fighting tears, Elena smiled slightly.

"So are you two, like, together…?" the snarky girl interrupted the touching moment.

"What? No! No. He's my brother." Sam assured her as Dean and Elena glared at her.

The girl stuttered out her understanding and then suggested that she leave. Sam agreed with her and apologized as if they'd interrupted her moment. As the girl disappeared into the bedroom and came out moments later with clothing on, Sam seemed to finally notice Elena. He bid goodbye to the girl, calling her the wrong name, as Dean ushered Elena into the hotel room. When Sam closed the door and turned to face them, Elena leaned against the wall in the corner awkwardly, feeling very out of place. As soon as he sat down, Dean crossed his arms over his chest.

"So tell me, what'd cost?" he asked, his voice tinged with a hint of anger.

"The girl? I don't pay, Dean." Sam scoffed as Elena blushed at the thought.

"That's not funny, Sam. To bring me back. What'd cost? Was it just your soul or was it something worse?" Dean said gruffly.

"You think I made a deal?" Sam asked.

"That's exactly what we think." Bobby cut in.

Elena had no idea what they were talking about so she just watched with interest as these men traded words.

"Well, I didn't." Sam said, sounding confused.

"Don't lie to me." Dean said calmly though she could tell it was hiding a rush of anger.

Elena suddenly felt uncomfortable again and she stared down at her hands.

"I'm not lying." Sam said simply.

"So what now? I'm off the hook and you're on, is that it? You're some demon's bitch boy? I didn't want to be saved like this." Dean growled, starting forward.

Sam stood up and turned to face him.

"Look, Dean, I wish I had done it, all right?"

Dean leapt forward and grabbed his shirt in two hands. Elena remained frozen where she was, watching with wide eyes.

"There's no other way that this could have gone down! Now tell the truth!" Dean demanded.

"I tried everything! That's the truth! I tried opening the Devil's Gate! Hell, I tried to bargain, Dean, but no demon would deal, all right?" Sam snapped, pushing him away. "I'm sorry it wasn't me, all right? You were rotting in hell for months. I couldn't stop it and I'm sorry." He sounded truly regretful and Elena felt for him, knowing she would feel the same way about her brother.

"It's okay, Sammy." Dean said softly, finally sounding as though he believed his brother. "You don't have to apologize. I believe you."

The room remained silent for a moment as everyone processed what had just been revealed and at the same time, the mystery that still remained. Who the hell raised Dean from hell?

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! Sorry I know I promised maybe Castiel but I wanted to get the chapter uploaded and I have to go to bed soon. So next chapter we will definitely have Castiel. Thanks for reading and review please!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, chiwi, Beautiful Lie 5015, Limetka.111, DDAMONSSALVATORE , helenamtavares, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, slayerdiaries, DreamfulSin, and the guest for reviewing and to everyone who's reading!**

* * *

Elena sat there awkwardly as Dean and Sam stared at each other and Bobby went back and forth between staring at both of them.

"Who is this? A hitchhiker?" Sam asked, looking sideways at her.

"She found me on the side of the road in an old abandoned gas station." That was all Dean said.

Elena expected for him and Bobby to explain more about her dreams leading her to him but neither of them said a word. It was like there was an unspoken agreement between them to tell Sam the littlest amount of information possible.

"And you brought her along, why?" Sam asked, not sounding angry, just surprised.

"I have knowledge of certain supernatural beings and they thought that I might be helpful in figuring out what happened to Dean." Elena spoke up.

They all looked at her with surprise.

"What does she mean?" Sam asked, turning to Dean.

Elena huffed quietly. Why did he keep asking questions about her and expected information from anyone but her.

"She just knows things, Sam. That's not what's important right now. What were you doing here if you weren't digging me out of my grave?" Dean demanded.

"Well, once I figured out I couldn't save you, I started hunting down Lilith, trying to get some payback." Sam explained.

"All by yourself? Who do you think you are, your old man?" Bobby scoffed accusingly.

Elena felt as though this was a dig at their father and wondered what the story was behind that considering that neither of the brothers flinched at the words. She sighed and her eyes scanned the room. She caught sight of a bra covered in flowers at the same time as Dean, who frowned and stood, crossing the room to pick it up.

"Uh, yeah. I'm sorry, Bobby. I should have called. I was pretty messed up." Sam said, watching as Dean picked up the lingerie.

"Oh yeah, I really feel your pain." He said sarcastically, tossing it aside as Elena fought a smile.

"Anyways, uh, I was checking these demons out of Tennessee, and out of nowhere they took a hard left, booked up here." Sam explained, looking at Elena with an unsure expression.

"You can talk freely in front of her." Bobby spoke up, surprising Elena with his defense of her despite the fact that he didn't know her very well.

"What is this, a secret society?" she said, almost laughing at the thought.

They all looked at her with serious expressions.

"Ok. My lips are sealed." She said, attempting to be serious but unable to keep all of the amusement out of her voice at their shady attitudes.

"You think these demons are here 'cause of you?" Bobby asked Dean.

"Well, I don't know. Some badass demon drags me out and now this? It's gotta be connected somehow." Dean said.

"How do you know it's a demon?" Elena asked.

They all looked at her with guarded looks.

"Because we've been dealing with demons a lot lately and they seem to have some kinda boner for these two boys." Bobby explained.

Elena flushed at the crass language but nodded.

"We need to figure out exactly who pulled me up." Dean decided.

"I know a psychic. A few hours from here. Something this big, maybe she's heard the other side talking." Bobby said.

"Hell yeah, it's worth a shot." Dean nodded.

"I'll be right back." Bobby said, standing up and pulling out his phone as he walked out of the room.

Elena watched as Dean stood but Sam stopped him.

"You might want this back." the younger brother said, pulling a cord with an amulet on it out of his shirt and off of his neck.

He handed it to Dean, who looked at it reverently and with a face full of emotion.

"Thanks." Dean said, not taking his eyes off of it.

"Yeah, don't mention it." Sam waved off with a nod.

Dean put it on, looking up at Sam.

"Hey, Dean what was it like?" he asked.

Dean's smile disappeared and Elena bit her lip, knowing exactly what Sam was asking about. If Dean couldn't accurately describe it, she certainly could.

"What, hell?"

There was an awkward pause.

"I don't know… I… I must have blacked it out." Elena stared at him with surprise.

That must have been a lie. He wouldn't have remembered her if he did black it out.

"I don't remember a damn thing." Dean said, looking as though he was avoiding her gaze as she stood up.

"Thank God for that." Sam said, sounding relieved.

"Yeah." Dean agreed, not sounding so sure.

Why had he lied to his brother? Why were they all keeping secrets from each other? What the hell kind of family was this? But she couldn't really speak, could she? After all, she wasn't telling Jeremy or anyone else what was happening with her.

* * *

Bobby came back in a few minutes later. Dean was in the bathroom and Sam and Elena were standing in the hotel room awkwardly trying not to make eye contact.

"I got a hold of her. She said come on down. Where's Dean?" the older man asked.

"In the bathroom. We'll meet you downstairs." Sam said, grabbing keys and a duffle bag that looked heavy.

Bobby nodded and turned to walk out again. Elena wasn't sure of whether to follow him or stay where she was.

"Hey, I'm sorry I was being weird earlier. It's just hard to trust someone you don't know. You know?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I do." Elena agreed, surprised at his apology.

Dean walked out with his face a little bit pale. He looked shaken.

"Are you all right? Is it your shoulder?" Elena asked, starting forward as her concerned mothering instincts came out once again.

"I'm fine. Just a little hungry. I haven't even had a burger since I got back." Dean joked, grinning at Sam unconvincingly.

"Well we'll have to fix that immediately. Bobby's waiting for us downstairs." Sam said.

Dean nodded and Elena followed him out of the room, Sam bringing up the rear as he closed the door. When they got to the parking lot, Bobby told them to follow. Then he turned to Elena.

"Who do you want to ride with, Elena? Me or the Bobbsey twins?" he asked, gesturing to Sam and Dean, who looked uncannily similar in their jeans, boots, and jackets.

"She doesn't want to ride with an old man like you. She'll ride with us." Dean said, steering Elena over to a different car with his hand on her lower back.

She felt warmth shooting through her body at his touch even though he wasn't really touching her skin. She blamed it on her confused state of mind at all of the things that were happening.

"I assume you'll want to drive." Sam said, tossing a set of keys to Dean, who laughed happily as they approached an older Chevy Impala with shiny black paint.

"I almost forgot! Hey sweetheart! Did you miss me?" Dean said with reverance, stroking the side as if he was stroking a precious valuable artifact.

Elena laughed at his behavior and he turned to shrug at her.

"You're just jealous cause you got a little bitty Mini Cooper." He accused her, grinning happily.

She hadn't seen him this happy in four months. Though it was understandable as he was in hell for most of their limited contact. He helped her climb into the back after she refused Sam's offer for her to sit in the front. As amusing as it would be to see Sam folding his tall body into the small backseat, she didn't want to get in the way of the brothers' reunion. When Dean caught sight of an iPod plugged into the radio, his smile disappeared quickly.

"What the hell is that?" he demanded, glaring at the technology as if it offended him.

"That's an iPod jack." Sam informed him with a grin as if he'd expected Dean's reaction.

"You were supposed to take care of her, not douche her up." Dean snapped.

Elena fought back her laughter and sat back as they continued to argue.

"Dean, I thought it was my car." Sam defended himself.

Dean didn't answer, turning to turn the car on. Jason Manns began to play and Dean looked shocked at the radio before turning to Sam.

"Really?" he said, his annoyance showing.

Sam shrugged innocently. Dean reached forward and yanked the jack out of the radio and tossed it in the backseat, narrowly missing Elena in his annoyance.

"You're a bit old fashioned, aren't you?" she asked, picking up the iPod and handing it to Sam, who shot her a grateful look.

"If you call good taste in music old fashioned." Dean growled, shoving a cassette tape into the stereo.

"On cassette tapes? Yes I do." Elena said, patting his shoulder, the one without the brand.

* * *

Elena stood behind the three men as Bobby knocked on the door of the home. A beautiful woman with dark brown hair and a bright smile opened the door.

"Bobby!" she laughed, reaching forward and hugging him.

"You're a sight for sore eyes, Pamela." he informed her when she pulled away.

"So these are the boys. And this is…" she trailed off, catching sight of Elena.

"I'm Elena." she introduced herself.

"Hmm. You need to get out of Illinois, Elena." the woman informed her.

"What?" she asked, her smile disappearing as the men looked between them with confused faces.

"We'll get to that later. For now we have to figure out what the hell got you out of the fire and back into the frying pan. You're a rare individual." She informed Dean, grinning slyly.

"If you say so." Dean agreed, obviously affected by her flirting.

"Come on in." Pamela said, stepping aside for them to walk past her.

"So, you hear anything?" Bobby asked.

"Well, I oujii'd my way through a dozen spirits. No one seems to know who broke your boy out, or why." Pamela said as she closed the door.

"So, what's next?" Bobby questioned her.

"A séance I think. See if we can see who did the deed."

The boys all nodded but Elena felt a bit of panic. She hadn't taken part in a séance since the ridiculous one that Caroline suggested back when Damon first came into town and Emily's necklace was giving Bonnie nightmares. It hadn't gone well so she wasn't really looking to take part in another one.

"I'll j-just stay out here." She stammered as they walked into the dining room.

Dean looked back at her with a questioning look.

"I have no desire to take part in a séance." She explained, looking sideways at Pamela as she tried not to offend the woman.

"Honey, that little magic trick you had with Emily Bennett is nothing compared to the real thing." Pamela laughed, causing Elena's eyes to widen.

"Can you please stop doing that?" she asked politely.

"Doing what?" the psychic shrugged.

"Telling me about my life." Elena said before turning to walk out of the house.

Once again, she was questioning what the hell she was doing. Why was she here with people she hardly knew? Her eyes lifted to the sky automatically as if it was natural for her to do so.

"You suck at directions! I've found the guy but I'm no closer to finding answers! It would help if they would actually stop being so damn shady about things. So is there anywhere else you can send me? Or maybe just tell me to go back to Mystic Falls. I can get back to my life and call this whole thing a failure. How does that sound?" she said.

Her phone beeped in her back pocket not two seconds after she finished her rant. She pulled it out with a sigh and saw that the Maps app was open again. It was dropped at a destination and when she pressed navigate, the voice sounded.

"You have arrived at your destination." It announced.

Elena scowled, looking up.

"That is not what I wanted to hear!"

Footsteps behind her caused her to whirl around.

"You do realize that you sound crazy, yelling at the sky?" Dean asked.

"You're the one who climbed out of a damn grave yesterday." she shot back, her frustration spilling over as she snapped at him.

He looked as though he was trying not to laugh at her.

"Shouldn't you be doing a freaking séance?" Elena demanded, pointing to the house.

"Pamela wanted me to make sure that you knew that she wasn't trying to offend you or freak you out by letting you know that she knew things about you." he assured her.

"Great." She said, not finding it great at all that a random psychic knew things about her.

"Why do you hate séances?" Dean asked.

Elena looked up at him with an unsure expression. Her phone suddenly beeped and she looked down to see an actual message from an unknown number. She gaped when she saw what it said.

**You are not exactly being open with your life either, Elena. So if you want them to share with you, you have to share with them too.**

She looked around before looking back at the phone and then up at Dean.

"My friends and I did one once about a year ago. One of them, who is a witch, ended up being possessed by her dead many greats grandmother. It was a freaky experience." Elena said, shivering at the memory.

"Well hopefully this one won't be as bad." Dean said as the door opened and Sam called him inside.

"Last chance for a second séance." He offered.

"I'm ok." She nodded, gesturing for him to go on without her.

"Fine. Wish us luck." He said, turning to walk back inside.

She paced back and forth as she imagined what could be happening in the house. Whatever it was, it was unlikely to be a good thing. Shit like this never ended well for anyone. Suddenly a piercing ringing reached her ears and she cried out, covering her ears in an attempt to make it go away. Past the painful noise, she could hear something else. Someone talking. It was a very deep voice. It kept repeating the same thing over and over again. Elena concentrated as much as she could past the pain.

"Go stop them!" it finally said clearly.

She gasped and stumbled up to the house, throwing the door open.

"You have to stop!" she shouted, running into the room.

Her voice was drowned out by Pamela's shrieking scream filling the air. Elena gasped when she saw the light flooding out of her eyes. The psychic collapsed out of her chair and everything stopped all at once. Dean and Bobby flew to Pamela and lifted her up as she sobbed. Sam ran out to call 911 and Elena ran to see if the other woman was all right. At that exact moment, Pamela opened her eyes to reveal empty black sockets.

"I can't see!" she screamed, her face twisted in agony and fear.

* * *

In the scramble to get Pamela into the ambulance and to the hospital, Elena lost track of everyone. She was huddled in a chair staring down at her hands as she processed everything that happened. If only she stressed the danger of a séance before they did it, Pamela might still have her vision. But then again, the psychic acted as though she did them all the time. But then there was the voice she heard. It accompanied the same ringing she heard at the gas station with Dean so it was most likely the same being. It knew that something bad was going to happen.

Was there a chance that it was the same thing that blinded Pamela and yanked Dean out of hell? Why was it able to speak to her and no one else?

"Hey." She jumped when she heard the deep voice.

Elena looked up to see Sam and Dean standing there. It occurred to her that the house was empty except for them. They must have finished giving the police their statement. She had no idea what lie they'd come up with to explain the absence of Pamela's eyes.

"Did Bobby go with her?" she asked hoarsely, realizing that tears were leaking out of her eyes slowly.

They image of Pamela's empty black sockets was burned into her mind. It was a horrible thing to see so she couldn't even imagine what it felt like for the poor woman.

"Yeah, they're at the hospital." Sam said.

Elena reached up and flicked the tears out of her eyes.

"We need to get back to Pontiac. We think that if we find the demons, they could give us something." Dean said.

She nodded numbly and followed them. She didn't even pay attention when she climbed into Dean's car. She stared out of the window for the entire drive. A few times, she tried to work up the nerve to tell them about the voice she heard but her own voice failed her each time. It didn't take them long to remember her trying to interrupt the séance in a panic, though.

"Hey, how did you know that something bad was going to happen?" Sam asked after they went over the ritual for the fifth time.

Elena looked up at them with tired eyes.

"I heard that ringing again." She said softly, looking at Dean in the rearview mirror.

"The one we heard in the gas station? I saw the static on the TV and the radio came on." he said, his eyes widening.

"That's not all I heard. I… I heard a voice too. It was telling me to stop you. To stop Pamela. If I'd only heard it a few seconds earlier, I could have stopped it." she said, looking back out the window.

"You couldn't have done anything, Elena. All three of us tried to get Pamela to stop. She was insistant on continuing." Sam said.

She didn't reply, closing her eyes as the image flashed through her vision once more. It was gruesome and she would never get it out.

* * *

It didn't take them long to arrive back in Pontiac with Dean's fast driving. He immediately took them to a restaurant that was mostly empty except for them. Elena settled with a plate of fries and water. Dean and Sam both ordered hamburgers, fries, and beer.

When they got their food, Sam turned to Elena.

"So what's your story?" he asked.

Elena looked between them with wide eyes, not expecting him to be so outright with his curiousity. At least Dean and Bobby managed to keep their questions quiet.

"Um…" she began, thinking of how to start it.

"You don't have to tell us." Dean said, glaring at his brother.

She thought about it for a moment. Then she threw all caution to the wind, remembering the text she'd gotten. If she wanted them to share with her, she'd have to share with them.

"Fuck it. I'll tell you." she sighed, causing both of them to look at her instead of keeping up their unblinking staredown.

She launched into her story, starting when her parents died. They both looked sympathetic as she spoke. When she got to the part about Stefan and Damon being vampires, they stopped her.

"They aren't vampires." Dean said, shaking his head before he took a gulp of his beer.

"Yes, they are." She said, confused at his refusal to believe her.

"Nah, vampires are nasty. They can't go out in the sun without risking a lot of pain. They won't die though. Also, that whole poisonous herb thing is a myth. The only thing that works on them is dead man's blood and beheading." Sam said, backing up his brother.

"Then someone's been feeding you wrong information because I happen to know for a fact that vampires can go out in the sun with a ring bewitched to protect him, a stake to the heart can kill them, and vervain is a reliable protection against them. Also, they drink blood." She argued.

The boys looked as though they would argue but she gave them a look that shut them up before she continued her story. She left out the doppelganger part and everything with Klaus, not wanting to tell them. First of all, it would be hard to explain the whole resurrection thing. So she just explained everything to do with Mystic Falls. That it was overrun with vampires and werewolves.

"This whole town sounds like one big job for a couple of hunters." Sam said, Dean nodding at his statement.

"No! No it's not!" she exclaimed in horror.

They looked at her with matching confused looks.

"They're my friends! You can't go kill my friends!" she protested.

"Elena you just finished telling us that they've made your life hell ever since your parents died. Your biological mother, biological father, adoptive mother and father, and your aunt all died. Why don't you want them gone?" Dean asked, not understanding her insistance that they remain living.

"Because I don't want them dead! They're my friends!" she repeated.

"All right fine, we'll leave them alone." Sam assured her.

She narrowed her eyes at both of them.

"Is that it?" Dean asked.

She shrugged and nodded, knowing that she was lying. Apparently so did they as they gave her skeptical looks.

"Elena we're really experienced with all kinds of people and creatures. We can tell you're lying." Dean informed her.

"Well maybe I'm not ready to tell you everything, okay? I just told you a lot about my life." she defended herself, huffing as she leaned back in her seat.

"You're right." Sam nodded.

"So… what about you?" she asked, looking between them hopefully.

"What about us?" they asked at the same time, sounding creepily alike.

"Your life? Can you tell me something since I told you something?" Elena asked.

They exchanged wary looks.

"When I was a few months old, our mom was killed by a demon." Sam began.

"Sammy!" Dean hissed.

"What? She's right. It's only fair that we tell her stuff." Sam shrugged.

"Yeah, it's only fair." She agreed, nodding solemnly but she was insanely curious.

"Fine." Dean grumbled, taking a large gulp of his beer.

"After mom was killed, our dad became obsessed with finding the demon who did it. But this wasn't any normal demon. He was one of the big and powerful ones. Dad knew it would take a lot of time an more than just him to kill this thing. So he raised us to be hunters just like him." Dean explained.

"Raised you? You mean, you've always been in this life?" Elena asked, looking between them.

She was suddenly counting herself lucky for only having to spend the last year of her life in the world of the supernatural. She couldn't have imagined spending all eighteen years of her life in it.

"Yeah, we have." Sam confirmed.

They went on to explain their training as they grew up and what they'd been doing ever since their father's death. They didn't say much about it, saying that he died at the hands of the demon who killed their mother. Dean told her that they killed the demon but didn't say how. Then Dean made a deal with a demon when Sam died and that's how he got sent to hell.

"And that leads you back around to now." he finished.

"Except we still don't know what raised you out of hell." She reminded them.

"Yeah, there's that." Sam agreed.

Before anyone could say anything else, Sam's phone rang.

"Bobby? How's she doing?" he asked immediately.

Elena and Dean both watched as he nodded.

"Yeah. You bet." He agreed before pulling the phone away and ending the call.

"What'd Bobby say?" Dean asked.

"Pam's stable. And out of I.C.U." Sam said, pocketing his phone.

"And blind because of us." Dean said bitterly.

"And we still have no clue who we're dealing with." Elena sighed, laying her head in her arms.

"That's not entirely true." Dean said, sounding a bit hopeful.

She raised her head to look at them.

"We got a name. Castiel or whatever. With the right mumbo-jumbo we could summon him, bring him right to us." Dean shrugged.

Castiel. It didn't sound demonic but that didn't mean that it wasn't.

"You're crazy. Absolutely not." Sam said, shaking his head.

"We'll work him over. I mean, after what he did?" Dean said, making it clear that revenge was on his mind.

"Pam took a peek at him and her eyes burned out of her skull. And you want to have a face to face?" Sam asked unbelievingly.

"I hate to say it, but I agree with Dean. It could possibly be the only way you guys figure out who he is." Elena suggested.

"You got a better idea?" Dean asked, nodding in thanks at Elena.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do. I followed some demons to town. So we go find them. Someone's gotta know something about something." The other brother shrugged.

The waitress walked up with two slices of pie for the two boys. Elena waved her off when she asked if she wanted anything else. Then the waitress slid into the empty chair. They all looked at her with questioning looks. Well not all of them, Dean was smirking.

"You angling for a tip?" he asked, sounding amused.

"I'm sorry. I thought you were looking for us." She said.

She blinked and her eyes went entirely black. Elena gasped and her eyes widened. With another blink, they were back to normal. They looked around to see that everyone in the restaurant had the same eyes.

"Dean. To hell and back. Aren't you a lucky duck?" the woman (was she a woman) said, smirking.

"That's me." Dean shrugged, not at all alarmed by her obvious inhumanity.

"So you just get to stroll out of the pit, huh? Tell me, what makes you so special?" she asked, leaning forward on crossed arms.

"I like to think it's because of my perky nipples." Elena blushed at his words and thought that this was hardly the time to be joking around.

But then again, Sam and Dean probably dealt with this every day.

"I don't know. Wasn't my doing. I don't know who pulled me out." Dean shrugged.

"Right. You don't." she said sarcastically, obviously not believing him.

"No, I don't." Dean confirmed.

"Lying's a sin, you know?"

"I'm not lying. but I'd like to find out, so if you wouldn't mind enlightening me, Flo." Dean suggested.

"Mind your tone with me, boy. I'll drag you back myself." She threatened.

Sam jerked forward as if to attack her but Dean stopped him.

"No, you won't." the elder Winchester brother said confidently.

Elena stared back and forth between everyone during the whole exchange.

"No?" the waitress asked, amused at his certainty.

"No, because if you were you would have done it already. Fact is, you don't know who cut me loose. And you're just as spooked as we are. And you're looking for answers. Well, maybe it was some turbo charged spirit. Or, uh, Godzilla. Or some big bad boss demon. I'm guesng at your pay grade that they don't tell you squat. Because whoever it was, they want me out. And they're a lot stronger than you. So go ahead. Send me back. But don't come crawling to me when they show up on your front doorstep with some Vaseline and a fire hose." Dean said, glaring at her.

"I'm going to reach down your throat and rip out your lungs." She said softly, narrowing her eyes dangerously.

Dean leaned forward, studying her closely. Elena gasped when he reached out and punched her. Then again. Neither hit elicited a response from her. In fact, she looked almost afraid.

"That's what I thought. Let's go, Sam, Elena." he said, standing up.

"You may be off limits, Dean. But the girl's not. And we happen to know that she's very valuable. So you may want to keep a close eye on her." the waitress murmured, looking straight at Elena, who looked shocked.

"Oh yeah, we know exactly who you are, Elena Gilbert. Word about the Petrova doppleganger travels. Trust me, you're worth a lot more than a silly little sacrifice for a silly little vampire." she said, grinning at her.

"Come on." Dean repeated, pulling Elena past the demon.

Half of her wanted to turn back and demand what the woman meant but they were already out of the restaurant.

* * *

After it was decided that they wouldn't go back and kill the demons, they went back to the hotel for a nap. Elena refused the bed and curled up on the couch, the demon's words going through her mind over and over again. What did she mean? How was she worth more than the sacrifice for Klaus when that's what her bloodline was specifically created for? It didn't make any sense. Perhaps whatever raised Dean from hell would have the answer to that as well. She drifted off into sleep with these troubling thoughts plaguing her mind. The one good thing was that, ever since Dean was raised from hell, her dreams had stopped.

After who knows how long, Elena was jerked out of sleep by the sound of a car starting. She looked around with bleary eyes and saw Dean stretched out on the bed but Sam was nowhere to be seen.

"Dean." She hissed, knowing that he should probably know that his brother was gone, especially with those demons out there.

Luckily, she didn't have to repeat his name to wake him up because the television that switched on with loud white noise filling the air did it for her. She jumped up at the same time as Dean. When he grabbed a shotgun and pointed it at the front door as if he expected someone to walk through. When the ringing noise began, she looked around wildly. Last time this happened with both of them in the same room, glass shattered all over the place. Because they were just lucky, the ceiling happened to be made out of squares of mirror.

"Dean!" she shrieked as the ringing got louder.

Before it grew to painful proportions, she grabbed the blanket she'd been sleeping under and scrambled over the couch to where he was beginning to crumple onto the floor. The glass began to break around them as she pulled the blanket over them. His arms wrapped around her automatically as the shatterd glass rained down on them. The door slammed open as they shouted in pain together.

"Dean! Elena!" Bobby shouted.

The ringing ended and the glass stopped breaking. They emerged from the blanket and looked at him with panic.

"We gotta get out of here." Dean said, grabbing the bag of weapons as Elena grabbed her purse and shook the glass off of it.

He walked behind her as they exited the hotel room.

"What the hell is this thing and why does it keep doing this?" Dean growled.

"I didn't hear it this time." she said.

"Good. Where the hell is Sam?" Bobby said.

Dean looked as though he just realized his brother was missing.

"That asshole took my car." He said, his eyes wide and angry.

* * *

As they drove down the dark road, Dean dialed Sam's number on Bobby's phone.

"What are you doing?" he demanded when Sam answered.

After waiting for a reply, he frowned at the window.

"In my car?" he said gruffly.

After another pause, he rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Well, uh, Bobby's back. We're going to grab a beer."

Bobby looked at him with shock and opened his mouth to say something but Dean silence dhim.

"Done, catch you later." He said before hanging up.

"What the hell didn't you tell him?" Bobby demanded.

"Because he'd just try to stop us." Dean answered.

"From what?" Bobby asked as if he didn't really want to know the answer.

"Summoning this thing. It's time we faced it head-on." Dean replied.

* * *

"In a warehouse? Are you trying to set up a horror movie?" Elena asked from the corner where she was directed, watching Bobby paint symbols all over the walls and floor.

Dean ignored her, rolling his eyes as her skepticism.

"That's a hell of an art project you've got going there." he informed Bobby, who finally finished painting.

"Traps and talismans from every faith on the globe. How you doin'?" he asked, walking to the table.

"Stakes, iron, silver, salt, demon-killing knife. I mean we're pretty much set to catch and kill anything I've ever heard of.

"This is still a bad idea." Bobby reminded him.

"Yeah, Bobby, I heard you the first ten times. What do you say we ring the dinner bell?" Dean asked.

Bobby sighed and nodded reluctantly, going to another table and pinching powder in his fingers. After sprinkling it into a large bowl that began to smoke, he began chanting in what Elena assumed was Latin. Thirty minutes later, they were seated around the warehouse. Bobby and Dean were on the tables and Elena was lounging on the ground in the corner.

"You sure you did the ritual right?" Dean asked Bobby, who gave him a glare. "Sorry. Touchy, touchy, huh?" he teased.

Suddenly, a loud rattling wind began to shake the slats in the roof. Dean and Bobby jumped up and Elena stood slowly.

"Stay there." Dean warned her.

It was clear that they didn't want her to get involved in whatever fight they were going to most likely be forced to partake in.

"Wishful thinking, but maybe it's just the wind." Dean mumbled.

Suddenly the doors slammed open despite the large piece of wood that was barricading it. Elena squinted through the bursting lights to see a figure walk in. It wasn't an it. It was a human, a man. He looked positively normal down to the tan trenchcoat. He was amazingly handsome as well. Dean picked up the demon-killing knife to which he referred earlier as the man approached.

"Who are you?" he demanded when the wind died down and everything became peaceful.

"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition." He said in a deep and gravelly voice.

"Yeah? Thanks for that." Dean said without missing a beat.

Elena gasped when he plunged the knife into the mystery man's chest. But whoever it was looked unaffected as he looked down and pulled it out, dropping the knife on the ground. Bobby attacked and, without looking, the man caught his weapon and turned, touching Bobby's head and causing him to pass out. Elena cried out and, before she knew it, her legs carried her over to check on the older man.

"Dean, Elena." he said, causing them both to look at him with alarm.

"We need to talk." He said simply.

* * *

**Author's Note: Castiel's here! Please review and keep being amazing! Also, I have a tumblr now. It's the same username as my author name, madameannabeth. Please follow me if you have one as well.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Beautiful Lie 5015, neontreeslover, Limetka.111, chiwi, slayerdiaries, Coleenrawr, DreamfulSin, Thera-Rocklynn and the guest reviewer for reviewing.**

**Just a warning, there are parts of this chapter that aren't going to be Elena/Dean but remember how long it took for Elena to stop searching for Stefan on the show. I don't want to make it unrealistic by making Elena forget all about Stefan and fall for Dean immediately. She has to sort out some stuff.**

**Just as promised, this has a little bit of TVD storyline in it. See? I'm not letting it go completely.**

* * *

Elena and Dean both leaned over Bobby, Dean checking his pulse while Elena watched the man in the trenchcoat nervously.

"Your friend is alive." He said, flipping through one of Bobby's many books.

"Who are you?" Dean growled, standing up to stand in front of Elena and Bobby protectively.

"Castiel." He answered as if Dean should have known that already, his eyes still scanning a page.

"Yeah I figured that much. I mean _what_ are you?" Dean demanded.

He looked up at them with a furrowed brow, his eyes inspecting Dean before moving past him to look at Elena. For a moment, she could see such wisdom in his eyes. It was almost terrifying.

"I'm an angel of the Lord." He said solemnly.

Dean didn't say anything as Elena processed the thought. It looked like she wasn't far off with her God theory.

"Get the hell out of here. There's no such thing." Dean said stubbornly.

"Dean…" Elena murmured, wanting to tell him that she believed the mysterious man.

Dean didn't move from his protective stance and even tensed up when the angel moved closer. Castiel noticed and his eyes followed Dean's movements closely.

"That's your problem, Dean. You have no faith." He said in his deep, gravelly voice.

Elena stumbled backwards when thunder sounded and the room lit up with light. She was in awe when it illuminated Castiel and the shadow of huge black wings appeared in the lightning. They both stared at him for a moment afterwards. Elena slowly walked forward, almost entranced by this being. Dean stopped her, tugging her arm backwards until she stood beside him. She looked at him and saw him sizing up Castiel.

"Some angel you are. You burned that poor woman's eyes out." he snapped.

Castiel's eyes fell and he looked at the ground, almost looking ashamed.

"I warned her not to spy on my true form." He said, stepping forward as he spoke.

"It can be… overwhelming to humans. And so can my real voice, but you already knew that." Castiel said, his eyes flickering over to Elena.

"You mean the gas station and the motel? That was you talking." Dean questioned.

Castiel nodded slowly.

"Buddy, next time lower the volume." Dean sighed.

"It was my mistake. Certain people, special people, can percieve my true visage. I thought you would be one of them. I was wrong." The angel said to Dean

"Pamela's house?" Elena questioned softly, remembering the deep voice.

His eyes turned to her and he nodded again.

"I wish you could have heard me sooner. I was trying to warn someone. I was trying to talk to Elena in all of the places because I had a feeling that she would be able to hear me." Castiel explained.

"So it was you? And with my phone?" she asked, sliding out of Dean's grasp as she stepped forward.

"That device is very difficult to manage. I was very proud when I was finally able to send you a message with words." He admitted.

Elena tried to hide her smile at the frustration in his voice.

"What visage are you in now? Holy tax accountant?" Dean interrupted, looking him up and down.

"This…" he looked down at the trenchcoat and suit.

"This is a vessel." He explained.

"You're possessing some poor bastard?" Dean demanded.

"He's a devout man, he actually prayed for this." Castiel said with a slight smile.

There was silence for a moment.

"Well I'm not buying what you're selling so who are you really?" Dean growled, his skepticism coming out once more.

Castiel looked very confused. His brow furrowed and he titled his head slightly to the side. He looked a little bit like a stumped little puppy.

"I told you." he said.

"Right. And why would an angel rescue me from hell?" Dean demanded.

Castiel sighed and stepped even closer, causing Elena to accidentally back up all the way until she hit Dean's chest. She squeaked and moved to get out of the way but he held her in place. She felt awkward, standing in between Dean and Castiel, almost as though she was a buffer between them. As Castiel was very close to her, she noted the extreme blueness of his, or his vessel's, eyes.

"Good things do happen, Dean." Castiel said.

"Not in my experience." Dean said, a hint of pain and anguish in his voice.

Castiel looked even more stunned.

"What's the matter?"

Elena could see the realization hit Castiel and she wondered what revelation hit him.

"You don't think you deserve to be saved." The angel said knowledgeably.

Elena almost wished that she could turn to see Dean's face as his hands tightened slightly where they held her up arms to keep her in place. Dean let out a scoff.

"Why'd you do it?" he said, his voice letting them know that he'd had enough.

"Because God commanded it." Castiel said slowly. "Because we have work for you. Both of you."

Then he was gone with a sound that sounded like the flutter of wings. They both gasped and looked around, wondering where the hell he went. Dean let Elena go and she turned, kneeling next to Bobby again as Dean ran outside to see what was going on out there. Bobby groaned and she sighed with relief as she helped him up to a sitting position.

"What the hell happened? What was that thing?" he asked as Dean walked back inside.

Elena looked over at him.

"It said it was an angel." he growled, picking up the demon-killing knife and placing it on the table.

"You don't believe him?" she questioned.

"Of course I don't." Dean scoffed, beginning the cleanup of the warehouse.

* * *

"Well then tell me what else it could have been." Sam demanded from where he was sitting in the kitchen.

They were back in Sioux Falls, having left Illinois as soon as they could. Dean was pacing back and forth all over the place and Bobby and Elena were sitting on opposite sides of his desk reading through a couple of books to see if they could find anything on angels.

"Look, all I know is I was not groped by an angel." Dean said definitively.

"Okay, look, Dean. Why do you think this Castiel would lie to you about it?" Sam asked.

"Maybe he's some kind of demon. Demons lie."

Bobby looked up and rolled his eyes at their constant arguing.

"A demon whose immune to salt rounds? And devil's traps? And Ruby's knife? Dean, Lilith is scared of that thing!" Sam argued.

"Who is Ruby?" Elena whispered to Bobby.

"That's a soap opera for another day." He replied, shaking his head.

"Don't you think that if angels were real, that some hunter somewhere would have seen one… at some point… ever?" Dean demanded.

"Yeah. You just did, Dean." Sam informed him in a sarcastic congratulatory tone.

"I'm just trying to come up with a theory here, okay? Work with me." Dean requested.

"We have a theory!" Bobby reminded him.

"Yeah, one with a little less fairy dust on it, please." He scoffed.

"How do you explain the wings?" Elena called, exasperated by the older Winchester brother's staunch refusal to accept the obvious.

Dean sent her a frustrated look, obviously not expecting for her to join the argument against him.

"Okay, look. I'm not saying we know for sure. I'm just saying that I think we –"

"Okay, okay. That's the point. We don't know for sure, so I'm not gonna believe that thing is a freaking angel of the Lord because it says so!" Dean said stubbornly.

"You two chuckleheads want to keep on arguing religion, or do you want to come take a look at this?" Bobby growled, obviously as tired of the arguing as Elena was.

They stood there for a moment staring at him before Sam rolled his eyes and Dean sighed heavily. They made their way over and bent over the desk on either side of where Elena was sitting to take a look at the book Bobby was reading. She bent forward with them.

"I got stacks of lore – Biblical, pre-biblical. Some of it's in damn cuneiform. It all says an angel can snatch a soul from the pit."

"What else?" Dean asked immediately, rubbing at his branded shoulder.

"What else, what?" Bobby questioned.

"What else could do it?"

Elena stood up and pushed his sleeve up, inspecting the still blistered handprint. She sighed and retrieved her first aid kit from where she was carrying it in her large purse. After spending a few days with these men, she had a feeling that she would need it all the time now and that she would have to keep restocking it.

"Airlift your ass out of the hot box? As far as I can tell, nothing." Bobby shrugged, slamming the book closed.

As Elena applied ointment to the blisters, she caught sight of his face, which was less than happy.

"Dean, this is good news." She informed him with a roll of her eyes.

"How?" he asked, looking over at her.

"Because for once, this isn't just another round of demon crap. I mean, maybe you were saved by one of the good guys, you know?" Sam said.

"Okay. Say it's true. Say there are angels. Then what? There's a God?" he scoffed.

Elena carefully applied gauze to the burn and taped it down with medical tape.

"At this point, Vegas money's on yeah." Bobby said simply.

"I don't know, guys." Dean laughed humorlessly, moving his arm experimentally as Elena finished doctoring it up.

"Look. I know you're not all choirboy about this stuff. But this is becoming less and less about faitha nd more and more about proof." Sam said, gesturing wildly as he spoke.

"Proof?" Dean questioned skeptically.

"Yes!"

"Proof that there's a God out there that actually gives a crap about me personally? I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it." Dean scoffed.

"Why not?" Elena asked, running her fingers through her hair.

She already knew why. It came down to what he admitted to Castiel in the warehouse.

"Because why me? If there is a God out there, why would he give a crap about me?" he demanded.

"Dean…" Sam began.

"I mean, I've saved some people, okay? I figured that made up for the stealing and the ditching chicks. But why do I deserve to get saved? I'm just a regular guy." He argued, sounding desperate to know the answer.

"Apparently you're a regular guy that's important to the man upstairs." Sam sighed.

"Well, that creeps me out." Elena laughed at his logic.

"I mean, I don't like getting singled out at birthday parties, much less by… God." He said the last word with a chuckle.

"Well, too bad, Dean. Because I think he wants you to strap on your party hat." Sam said.

Dean looked around them. Bobby sat back in his chair and shrugged. Elena crossed her arms and nodded at him.

"Fine. What do we know about angels?" Dean groaned, finally giving into the concept that maybe what Castiel said was true.

Bobby picked up a pile of thick and heavy looking books, holding them out to all of them.

"Start reading." He instructed.

They all stared at the tall stack with unimpressed looks.

"We never had to do research in Virginia." Elena grumbled.

"You're gonna get me some pie." Dean said, pointing at Sam.

"Fries for me?" she requested.

"Beer." Bobby threw in as Sam turned to walk out with the Impala keys.

They all grabbed a book and Elena settled back into her chair to begin reading.

* * *

It didn't take long for her to slip into her old study habits. She slid to the floor and began reading while cross-legged and leaning against the side of the desk. Then she leaned forward on her elbows. Then she stretched her legs out and leaned back one one arm while holding the book up with the other. About the sixth time she switched positions in thirty minutes, this time lying on her stomach with the book on the ground and her legs bent at the knee and crossed at the ankle and her head lying on her hands that were cradling her chin, she heard Bobby clear his throat. When she looked up at him, she saw his eyebrow raised.

"I have a problem sitting still when I'm studying." She admitted, her cheeks coloring with embarrassment.

"Any other dirty secrets you got, girl?" he grumbled.

"Sometimes I make and eat a whole pan of brownies when I'm upset, guilty, or genuinly feeling less than fantastic." She offered without missing a beat.

Laughter floated out of the kitchen and she smiled because it was the first time she ever heard Dean really laugh. She heard him dialing on Bobby's phone and listened closely to see what he would say.

"I just remembered some more things… yes Sam you have to buy more. Oh shut up I was in hell for four months. Chips. Chocolate. Pie. Do not forget the pie, Sammy. Anything else? Brownies."

Elena's face broke out into a full grin and she looked back to see him lounging in his chair with his feet on the table and the book in his lap. One hand was behind his head and the other held the phone to his ear.

"Yes I said brownies. But I swear if you forget the pie…" he trailed off, leaving the threat open.

"Bye." He hung up the phone.

As if he sensed she was watching him, he looked back and winked at her. She fought back a giggle and shook her head as she went back to reading. Just as they heard the Impala approaching the house, Bobby's phone rang. He looked down at it and a strange look crossed his face.

"Is it Sammy calling to complain like a little girl?" Dean called.

"It's the hospital where Pamela is." Bobby said, pressing talk as he lifted it to his ear.

"Hey, how you doing?" he asked, relief crossing his face.

"Yeah, she's here." He said, sounding confused.

He made a face before handing Elena the phone.

"Hello?" she asked hesitantly.

"Elena, I'm sorry I was too stubborn to tell you before. I have to tell you know. I don't know if y'all are still in Illinois but you have to get out." Pamela said.

"Why?" she questioned, not telling the psychic that they were already safely in Sioux Falls because she wanted to know what the fuss was about.

"Klaus is in Chicago."

Elena gasped and her hand lifted to her mouth. First of all, did this woman know everything? How could she possibly know where Klaus was when it was made clear that Originals were impossible to track?

"If Klaus is in Chicago, that means Stefan is too." Elena said, processing the thought in her mind.

"Who the hell is Klaus?" Dean demanded as he walked into the room.

"No, Elena. You cannot go. Klaus thinks you're dead and you need to keep it that way or he'll kill you." Pamela informed her desperately.

"But Stefan…" she breathed as she stood up, knowing that she was getting a very bad idea.

But she spent four months trying desperately to find him. If she knew where he was now, could she really pass up the opportunity to find him and maybe get him away from Klaus?

"Thanks, Pamela." She said, hanging up the phone.

She handed it to Bobby before running to the kitchen. After grabbing her purse and her keys, she was met with two large bodies blocking her at the door. Bobby talking on the phone. Pamela must have called back to stop them from letting her go.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked.

"She's going to Chicago after Pamela expressly warned her not to. Don't worry Pam, we'll take care of it." Bobby said before hanging up the phone.

"What's in Chicago? Who the hell is this guy, Klaus?" Dean asked, repeating his earlier question.

"Klaus doesn't matter. Stefan does and he's been lost. I need to go find him." she said, knowing that she was probably doing something stupid.

"He's this vampire that tried to kill her." Bobby spoke up.

Elena rolled her eyes and slid between Dean and Sam with difficulty, finally coming out the other side of them. She took off outside and towards her car but was stopped by Dean's hand.

"You're heading towards a guy that tried to kill you?" he demanded.

"He didn't try! He succeeded!" it accidentally slipped out and she clapped her hands over her mouth at the stupid slip-up.

That was not going to help her in her mission to go to Chicago.

"Seriously?" Sam asked the same time Dean said, "What?" and Bobby said, "Oh hell."

Dean's eyes traveled down to her hand and saw the ring sitting there that belonged to Jenna and she'd been wearing every since her death. His eyes widened and he let go of her as if he was stung.

"That's why you were so certain that your type of vampires existed. You're one of them!" he accused her.

"No!" she scoffed, ripping the ring off to show him as the sun beat down on them.

He stared at her with squinting eyes.

"I'm not a vampire. My biological father sacrificed himself to save me when Klaus tried to kill me." she explained, knowing that this explanation would take far too much time.

"Does this have something to do with that doppelganger thing that the demon said?" Sam asked.

She looked at all of them, frustrated with them holding her back.

"Doppelganger?" Bobby said, his mouth falling open at the word.

"Listen you're all great and I promise I will be back but I have to do this and you don't really have the right to hold me back. So I'll see you when I get back." she said, turning to walk away.

"You are not going!" Dean stressed.

"I am going!" she argued.

"Like hell you are!" Bobby joined in.

"You can't stop me!" she said, yanking her car's door open. "I can handle this!"

"What exactly are you going to do when we get there?" Dean demanded, stomping towards her.

"We? That's not happening, Dean. I'm going alone." She argued.

"You'll get killed! Different kind of vampire or not, they're bloodsucking monsters who will always try to kill you." he said disgustedly.

"Then how did I manage to date one for so long and keep my life?" she asked defensively.

"You didn't. This Klaus guy killed you, apparently." Dean said.

Elena glared at him before getting into her car and slamming the door shut. It shocked her when Dean jumped into the passenger seat, pulling her purse onto his lap.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, throwing her hands in the air.

"If you're goin', I'm coming with you. There ain't no way you're goin' off on your own." he said definitively.

She glared at him before yanking her purse out of his grip and throwing it in the backseat.

"You're a frustrating asshole, you know that?" she demanded.

"I've been told. Let's get on the road." He said, leaning his head back and crossing his arms.

"What if your brother and Bobby need you?" she demanded.

"What are you talking about, they're following us in the Impala." Dean shrugged.

She looked through the windshield to see them climbing into the car. But Sam turned and ran to them, handing them the bags of food.

"See you in Chicago." He said with a grin, turning to jog back to the Impala.

"Dude! Where's the pie?" Dean demanded, rifling through the bags.

Elena groaned and rolled her eyes as she backed out of the driveway and took off down the highway.

* * *

"Well we're in Chi-town now. How do you plan on finding this guy?" Dean asked.

"I'm working on it." Elena said, not wanting to admit that she was thinking about asking about any unexplained deaths in the area.

They were driving through downtown when she saw her answer. It wasn't ideal, but the vampire wouldn't kill her in the middle of Chicago in daylight, would she? Elena pulled the car over to the side of the road.

"What the hell?" Dean asked.

"Stay in the car please." Elena said pleadingly, turning it off and jumping out, running onto the sidewalk.

If Dean saw her, he would have too many questions.

"Katherine!" she called when she saw the woman walking away.

She stopped short, turning slowly to see Elena standing there awkwardly.

"Well, well, well, this isn't what I expected to see. What is little Miss Elena doing here without an escort?" Katherine asked, grinning as she walked up to her slowly.

When she heard the passenger door open, Elena cursed him and his stubbornness in her mind.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena demanded.

"Oh, are you here to rescue him? From Klaus?" Katherine said, laughing.

"Tell me or I'll find them myself and inform Klaus you're in town." She threatened.

"Yeah, with your last dying breath."

"He'll hunt you down whether I'm dead or not."

"Elena?" Dean's voice asked as he walked up next to her.

"Oh holy hell." He said when he saw Katherine standing in front of them.

She stared at him curiously.

"Oh I see what's happened. You've moved onto another strong man. Only this one's human. Congratulations." Katherine said, grinning.

"Just tell me where Stefan is." Elena said, not falling to her bait.

"Elena what the hell is going on?" Dean demanded.

"He means, why do I look exactly like you? Should I tell him, or do you want the honor? I'll give you a hint, we're not twins in the traditional sense." Katherine said, stepping forward to touch Dean's cheek.

The vervain dart was pressed threateningly against her stomach before she could move another inch.

"Attack me and you'll expose yourself in the middle of downtown Chicago. Tell me where Stefan is or it's a vervain shot for you. Tell me, Katherine, have you replenished your bloodstream with vervain?" Elena demanded, pressing it closer to her threateningly.

Katherine glared down at her.

"What the hell?" Sam and Bobby said at the same time when they joined the group.

A wicked smile bloomed across Katherine's face.

"Let me guess, brothers." She said, her eyes sparkling as she looked between Dean and Sam.

"How did you…?" Dean began.

"Elena's always had a thing for brothers. So have I. They're just so easy to turn against each other, don't you think, Elena?" Katherine asked, grinning at her.

"Where is Stefan?" she growled, digging the vervain dart into her side a bit more, but not enough to pierce her skin.

She glared down at Elena once more.

"A place called Gloria's bar. Now if you don't mind, I have a suicide mission to watch blow up in your face. See you on the other side, Elena." she said, turning to walk away.

Elena sighed and placed the dart back in her purse before slowly turning back to the three hunters.

"So that's my ancestor. She's a vampire." she explained.

"You look creepily alike." Dean said.

"So I've heard." Elena nodded, walking back to her car with a mission in her mind.

* * *

Gloria's bar turned out to be a beaten down looking place. Elena pulled up to it slowly. Of course, Sam and Bobby were in the Impala directly behind her while Dean was in the passenger's seat of her car.

"Any chance I can get you to stay here?" she asked, looking over at Dean.

He shook his head stubbornly. She sighed and opened the door, climbing out quickly and shutting it, locking it. Dean stared at her in shock through the window. She smiled and waved as she turned to walk into the bar. The alarm sounded when Dean opened the door and she rolled her eyes, turning to lock it again so the alarm would stop blaring. Dean's eyes widened and she turned to see a familiar face standing right in front of her. So familiar it almost hurt her to look at him again for the first time in four months.

"Stefan?" she asked.

His face was emotionless, not betraying any of the love she saw written all over it last time she saw him. Elena repeated his name and stepped forward to grab his hand. Suddenly his hand closed around her wrist and yanked her close to him.

"Hey!" she heard Dean shout.

"What are you doing here, Elena?" he growled, his eyes glaring into hers.

"I came for you, Stefan." She breathed.

"You shouldn't have." He snapped, grasping her upper arm and yanking her along, slamming into the empty bar with fury.

When she saw the figure sitting at the bar, she gasped and fought against Stefan's hold.

"Stefan stop!" she cried as Klaus turned around slowly.

The shocked look in the hybrid's eyes was enough to freeze him into place for a moment as Elena fought against Stefan's hold.

"Let me go!" she pleaded, wanting to get as far away from Klaus as she could.

Not that it would help much. He'd already seen her and now she wasn't going to get out of this alive. She only hoped that Dean, Sam, and Bobby had enough sense to run the other direction. Her hopes were quashed when Dean ran into the bar. Stefan let go of Elena and shoved her to Klaus before running to the door and slamming it closed before Bobby and Sam could make it in.

"Well, well, well, not only is my doppelganger alive, but she's got an entourage with her. I haven't met the gentlemen. I'll get to you in a moment. Now it's become clear to me exactly why I'm not able to make more hybrids. What do you have to say for yourself, Stefan?" Klaus asked.

"I'm sorry, Klaus. I just didn't want to have to waste time going back to Mystic Falls so that you could kill her." Stefan said from the door..

Elena stumbled and Dean stepped forward as if to attack someone.

"Stop!" she cried, turning to throw her hands out.

He froze in place.

"You have to leave." she pleaded.

Suddenly an arm wrapped around her chest from behind and she forgot to breath for a moment. It was eerily reminiscent of the sacrifice as Klaus breathed in her scent from her neck. She took a shuddering breath and her body began to tremble.

"You're not meant to be alive, lovely." He whispered.

"Please don't kill him." She whimpered, staring at Dean with wide eyes.

Stefan disappeared reappeared at the door, obviously barring anyone from leaving.

"Is this your new slave, Elena?" Klaus asked.

Suddenly Stefan had his arm wrapped around Dean's neck. Elena shrieked and tried to fight her way out of Klaus' grip.

"What did you do to Stefan? Why is he different?" Elena cried.

"I fixed him." Klaus said simply, holding him in place.

"You compelled him to turn it off?" Elena hissed, her eyes widening as she took in Stefan's unemotional face as he choked Dean, who was slowly turning red with lack of air.

"Like I said, fixed him." Klaus said.

Suddenly, Elena heard a familiar fluttering of wings. Klaus' grip on her suddenly disappeared. When she heard crashing, she turned to see Klaus sprawled across one of the tables with a familiar figure standing over him. When Stefan let go of Dean, who collapsed to the ground inhaling deeply, he ran at Castiel, the angel stopped him with a grip on his throat. Elena ran to Dean and helped him up slowly before turning to look at Castiel. He touched his fingers to Stefan's forehead just as he had Bobby in the warehouse. Stefan collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Castiel?" she whispered, staring at him with wide eyes.

"That psychic really needs to stop putting her nose where it doesn't belong." Castiel said simply before turning back to Klaus, who was staring up at him with wide eyes.

Elena never imagined that someone was stronger than Klaus but she was proved wrong with Castiel.

"Who are you?" Klaus demanded, glaring up at Castiel though she could see a hint of fear in his eyes.

"I'm an angel." Castiel said.

Klaus' eyes widened and he made a move to sit up but Castiel slammed him back down with one hand.

"Stay." He said, staring down at the hybrid.

"Listen to me, you will not go after Elena Gilbert every again. She is off limits to you. I see everything so I will see if you disobey this. Compared to me you are a puny little cockroach. I will smash you like a bug if you dare to touch her again. The same goes for her family. The town of Mystic Falls is protected by angels and you will be striked down if you try to kill a single soul inside of it, vampire, werewolf, or otherwise." Elena watched with wide eyes as the angel berated the thousand year old vampire.

Klaus didn't say anything in response but she could see the fear on his face. He would not dare to disobey Castiel for fear of his power.

"I thought that angels were extinct." He said.

"We will always be around, you insignificant little speck. The same can't be said of you so I suggest you take great care in your actions for fear that we will strike back. You are irrelevant to us so I will not hesitate to smite you where you stand. That girl is very important to us and her family is important to her. Do not make me warn you again, you will not like the outcome." Castiel said.

Klaus nodded, glaring up at him. Castiel reached down and pressed two fingers to his forehead. Klaus' eyes fluttered closed and Elena stared at Castiel with wide eyes.

"Thank you." she said softly, stepping towards him.

"I was not lying, Elena. You are very important to the angels. You cannot do anything this reckless again. Stick with the Winchesters and Bobby Singer. They will protect you when I cannot." Castiel said.

Elena nodded slowly, her eyes traveling to the unconscious forms of the two vampires. Tears burned her eyes as she stumbled over to Stefan, kneeling beside him. He looked almost normal unconscious but his unemotional look was burned into her mind. If Klaus was telling the truth and he'd compelled Stefan to turn it off, there was a good chance that he was lost to her. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as her head fell to his chest.

"I loved you." she whimpered, placing her hands on his cheeks.

She bent down, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

"But I have to let you go because you are not the same. You are just like him now." She cried, looking up at Klaus' form.

"I hope Damon finds a way to fix you." she whispered, stroking his cheek as her tears fell down onto his face.

When she was done saying goodbye to Stefan and her old life, she stood and wiped the tears from her eyes. Then she turned to see Castiel and Dean staring at her. Dean looked sympathetic and Castiel looked confused.

"Do you know where he was keeping the coffins?" she asked, stepping forward while looking at Castiel.

He nodded slowly.

"Where?" she questioned.

"May I see your phone?" he asked, reaching his hand out.

She placed it in it hesitantly. It suddenly lit up and she saw that the Maps app was open to a warehouse a few blocks away. She smiled fondly and took the phone from him. In the next instant, Castiel had disappeared. Elena sighed and looked at Dean.

"I have to do something and then we can leave Chicago." She said, clutching the phone in her hand.

"I'm sorry this ended up like this." he said.

She looked back at the unconscious figures of the two vampires.

"It wasn't meant to be." she said sadly, turning away from him and walking for the door.

It was locked so she unlocked it and stepped out with Dean close behind her. Sam and Bobby were standing there with guns and stakes.

"What the hell happened?" Sam demanded.

"Castiel showed up." Dean shrugged.

"We have to go somewhere very quickly so I can do something and then we can leave." Elena said, walking to her car.

* * *

They arrived at the warehouse a few minutes later and she got out and walked inside, spotting the coffins lined up in a row immediately.

"What the hell?" Sam and Bobby questioned.

Elena opened one that looked newest out of all of them. Her instinct was right when she saw Elijah lying there with a dagger in his chest. Sam, Dean, and Bobby all gaped down at his body.

"We have got to stop meeting like this." she addressed his deteriorated form.

"Who is this?" Dean asked, grimacing at the body.

"Elijah, Klaus' brother." Elena said simply, reaching down and pulling the dagger out before putting it in her purse.

A jar of white powder was carelessly thrown in the coffin with Elijah and she took that too.

"Are you saying goodbye to him?" Sam asked, confused.

"No, I just woke him up." Elena said, taking her keys out of her purse.

She laid them on his chest along with her phone.

"Woke him up?" Dean asked.

She sighed and turned to them.

"Elijah, Klaus, and their family, the rest of whom are in these coffins, are the original vampires of the kind that I am familiar with. They were created a thousand years ago using the blood of my ancestor, a Petrova. Klaus was born of a different father than the rest and his father was a werewolf. His mother binded his werewolf side with a curse using the blood of a Petrova, thereby creating a doppelganger line with the blood that was able to break the curse on the full moon along with the sacrifice of a werewolf and a vampire. Katherine is another doppelganger. She was changed into a vampire back in the 1400's.

Four months ago, Klaus succeeded in breaking the curse. He sacrificed me, a werewolf named Jules, and my Aunt Jenna, who he turned into a vampire just before ritual as punishment for us rescuing his original choice for the vampire, my best friend Caroline. My biological father had my other friend, Bonnie, who is a witch, do a spell that allowed him to give up his life so that I would live. That's why I'm still alive. I woke up after the ritual and was still human and everything. But a werewolf bit Damon, and werewolf venom is deadly to vampires.

As it turned out, Klaus' blood is the cure for a werewolf bite. Stefan traded himself to Klaus for the cure to give to Damon. That's why he took off with Klaus and that's why I was so desperate to come find him. Because he gave himself up so willingly for his brother's life. Now… now Klaus has made Stefan into a monster. He compelled him into turning off his humanity and the Stefan that I fell in love with is gone forever." She explained, her voice breaking on the last few words.

They looked sympathetic.

"Anyways, Elijah is Klaus' brother. And Originals can't be killed. They can be incapacitated with these daggers. Trust me, once Elijah wakes up, he'll be angry enough at Klaus to keep him busy for a while." Elena said, looking down at the most honorable of the Originals.

"Well, that makes sense. But why are you leaving your car keys with him?" Dean asked.

"Because it was my Aunt Jenna's car. And I'm leaving that life behind. It's caused me and the people around me nothing but pain. I almost got Dean killed today because I couldn't see past it. So I'm letting go. I don't need my car anymore. Is that… all right?" she asked hesitantly.

"Hell yeah it is. Now you can ride in the Impala whenever you want." Dean said, throwing his arm around her shoulders.

She smiled up at him hesitantly. Then she pulled out a piece of paper and quickly scribbled a note.

_Dear Elijah,_

_I know you're probably really disconcerted waking up in Chicago in a coffin. I removed the dagger from you because Klaus has already gone too far with his newly found hybrid-ism. He's compelled Stefan to turn it off and is trying to create new hybrids. I'm not in Mystic Falls anymore but I'm not going to tell you where I am. I've left that life for a reason and I don't wish to be sucked back into it. I know that you'll most likely feel guilt for going back on your word and allowing Klaus to live. But I am telling you right now not to. I don't have time to wake up the rest of your family so I trust that you will do that. I'm leaving you my car keys and I'm sorry in advance for the lack of space in it. I suppose it's better than nothing. I'm safe and I hope that you will be as well once you wake up._

_Best Wishes,_

_Elena_

She placed the note on his chest with her car keys and then turned to them.

"Let's go." Elena announced.

They nodded and left the warehouse. She curled up in the backseat of the Impala with poor Sam folded back there with her. Apparently, according to Bobby and Dean, the owner (Dean) got to drive and it was age before beauty (Bobby) for the passenger seat. It was getting dark by this time and she watched through the window of the car as the lights of Chicago flashed by. Tears gathered in her eyes as she thought of all she lost that day. She would never forget the blank look in Stefan's eyes and how he so easily delivered her to Klaus.

The first love of her life was gone. The tears ran freely down her face and she tried to keep as quiet as she could. Apparently, she was unsuccessful. Sam shocked her when he reached over and pulled her across the seat (there were no seatbelts in the backseat) and wrapped his arms around her soothingly. His embrace was so comforting that she couldn't help but break out into heavy sobs and bury her head in his jacket. As she cried, she slowly drifted off into sleep, releasing her mind into the darkness.

* * *

Sam shaking her gently woke Elena up. She looked around to see that they'd arrived back at Bobby's place in Sioux Falls. Had she really slept for the entire trip? Part of her was glad. She needed the sleep after the emotional upheaval of that day. Though she felt terrible for pinning Sam down by sleeping in his arms the entire way. As they climbed out of the car, she noticed that Bobby was talking on the phone. He hung up and looked at them all with an alarmed look.

"All of the hunters in the Oregon area are dead. I had Rufus check it out when Olivia Lowry wasn't answering her phone." He said hesitantly.

Elena looked at Sam and Dean, who stood around with confused and panicked looks, just like Bobby.

"Well something's hunting hunters. That's a role reversal." Dean said as Elena started forward to walk inside.

When she saw someone standing in the shadows, she dropped her purse and let out a cry of surprise. The figure stepped out and smiled at her.

"Hello, Elena." she said.

"Jenna?" she whispered.

* * *

**Author's Note: Don't hate me for the cliffhanger!**

**1. Stefan won't be 'turned off' for the entire story. It's just like in the show but I moved the timetable up a bit more, as well as Elijah's undaggering. And we will be seeing Elijah again, trust me.**

**2. Elena and Stefan's relationship is now done with. The feelings aren't entirely gone but they aren't getting back together. That's not to say there won't be confrontation in the future.**

**3. Klaus won't be a complete asshole for the entire story. He is not the main villain.**

**4. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, SweetCheeks94, slayerdiaries, chiwi, Thera-Rocklynn, Beautiful Lie 5105, cdsnow, LilyNightShade, Limetka.111, Bee, neontreeslover, helenamtavares, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson and the guest for all reviewing! I love you all!**

**Dark-Supernatural-Angel: Yes, Elena did have her birthday before she left.**

**Just to clarify, Sam is not a romantic interest for Elena. I feel as though it might be strange to just have Elena switch to another set of brothers to fight over her. She's going to have her hands full enough with Dean without having to deal with a whole other Winchester brother. And trust me, she will have her hands full with Dean (wink wink).**

* * *

Elena stood there, shocked, staring at her aunt. Other than being a little pale, she didn't look too bad. She certainly didn't look dead.

"You can't be here." She said slowly.

"Can't I? Well… I am." Jenna shrugged, looking around the small kitchen.

"Jenna, how are you alive?"

The older woman laughed.

"That's funny, Elena. Because you see, I'm not alive."

Elena stared at her, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Then what are you?" she said.

"Finally asking the right questions. You know I always thought you were ridiculously naïve and a little less than smart, especially getting in the middle of two vampire brothers. But now you've found yourself a couple of hunters and an angel to protect you. Congratulations, Elena. You're a credit to your parents, hiding behind a couple of big bodies and hoping they'll keep you safe. How are you going to feel when they die for you too?"

Elena gaped at her. Jenna never said anything like that alive and she certainly never said it in that harsh tone of voice.

"Jenna, I…" she cut off when her figure began flickering.

Jenna looked down at her body and back up at Elena.

"It's a lot of work to keep this up. Don't mind if I flicker a bit." She said.

"What are you?" Elena pressed again.

Jenna was cut off from answering by a loud blast coming from a gun. The round hit Jenna right in the chest and she disappeared.

"No!" Elena cried, turning to see Dean, Sam, and Bobby standing in the doorway.

Dean was holding the gun, a sawed off rifle.

"That was my aunt, Jenna!" she said, gesturing back to where her form just was.

"She was a ghost, Elena." Sam said.

She looked between the three of them to see that Dean and Bobby were nodding, backing up Sam's declaration.

"So you killed a ghost with a gun?" she asked hesitantly.

"Didn't kill it. These are salt rounds. Salt is sort of poisonous to ghosts in that it keeps them away or makes them disappear if you shoot them with it." Dean explained, walking further into the kitchen.

"That's why you were trying to spread it around in the gas station. You thought it was a ghost…" Elena trailed off.

"… and I was trying to keep it out." he finished for her, nodding.

"But why do you have to keep them out?" she asked.

"Because first of all, ghosts can get real violent. They're not some storybook nice and kind things. They can… they can rip a hole in someone's chest." Bobby said, looking at the Winchester brothers.

"You think ghosts are doing this?" Dean asked.

"You think it's natural for a ghost to be in our kitchen who died in Virginia?" Bobby questioned, gesturing to Elena.

"You don't have anything of your aunt's with you, right?" Sam asked.

Elena looked down at the ring she was wearing and held it up for them to see.

"It was my mom's before it was Jenna's." she explained, sliding it off of her finger.

"Oh." Dean said, looking regretful.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because sometimes when someone has something that belonged to someone who was dead, it can bring the ghost right to them." Bobby said.

Elena looked down at the ring.

"So if you destroy it, it goes away?" she asked.

They all nodded.

"Here, I really don't fancy taking a walk down memory lane. Like I said, I let go of that life." she said sadly, handing them the ring.

"How the hell do we destroy a ring?" Dean asked, looking sympathetically at Elena as he spoke.

"I have a furnace downstairs that might get hot enough to melt the thing." Bobby suggested.

Dean nodded and set his rifle on the table before walking out with Bobby. Elena sighed and sat down, running her fingers through her hair and wishing for a shower, coffee, and a good night's sleep on a soft bed.

"You look a little worn out. I thought you might be fully rejuvinated after sleeping for that long in the car." Sam said, leaning against the cabinet.

She smiled slightly.

"Thanks for that. You could have just shoved me right off, you know." She informed him.

"Nah, you seemed so comfortable and I couldn't deny you that." he shrugged.

Suddenly he was thrown backwards into the fridge. Elena shrieked and jumped up. A figure appeared, flickering, standing over Sam.

Sam looked up with a shocked look.

"Henriksen. Are you… did you…"

"I didn't survive… if that's what you're asking." The man said, glaring down at Sam.

"I'm sorry." The tall hunter said softly, looking truly regretful.

"I know you are."

"Look, if we'd known Lilith was coming…" Sam began, struggling to stand up.

Elena didn't know what to do when she caught sight of Dean's gun. She'd shot a rifle a few times with her father and then with Alaric.

"You wouldn't have left half a dozen innocent people in that police station to die in your place! You did this to me! It was your fault! She was after you, and I paid the price! You left us there to die!" the man yelled, picking Sam up and throwing him against the counter, hitting him several times before slamming his head down on the sink.

Elena finally pulled the trigger, shrieking when the noise shattered the air around her and her body shook with the force of the gun, making her stagger back against the table. The round hit the ghost in the back and it disappeared. She ran to Sam weakly as he slumped to the ground. Luckily he was still conscious even though he was worse for wear.

"Sammy!" Dean called, running in.

He knelt in front of him, next to Elena.

"How you feeling, huh? How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked.

"None. I'll be fine, Dean." Sam groaned, sitting up and pressing his hand to his head.

"So what'd you say to Elena to piss her off so much that she kicked your ass?" Dean joked, making her smile at him as Sam let out a chuckle.

"It was Henrickson." Sam said as Elena and Dean helped him stand.

Dean stared at him as if he was crazy.

"But Henrickson is…" he began.

"Dead? Yeah, I'm getting the feeling that doesn't really matter to these guys anymore." Sam said.

"So an army of ghosts is attacking us?" Elena asked, looking between the brothers.

"I have no idea. Bobby!" Dean called.

They all looked at the entrance to the kitchen. He didn't show and didn't even answer.

"He was right behind me." Dean said.

Elena and Sam followed him as he walked out of the kitchen. An iron poker was on the ground as well as a ball next to it.

"What the hell?" Sam said, picking up the poker.

"I'll go up. You check outside." Dean said, gesturing to the stairs.

"What do you want me to do?" Elena asked.

"Stay here. Get my gun." Dean said, grabbing a different gun.

Elena walked back into the kitchen as Sam walked outside and Dean upstairs. She heard them both calling for Bobby as she leaned against the table with Dean's gun in her hands.

* * *

Dean walked upstairs slowly, looking around as he did.

"Bobby?" he questioned.

A door slammed shut on its own just as he spoke. Then another and another as one door opened slowly. He walked towards it silently, the gun held up at the ready.

"Come out come out, whoever you are." He sang, looking around.

When he felt the presence and chill of the ghost, he stopped, as he knew it was behind him.

"Dean Winchester. Still so bossy." The woman said as he turned.

She had shoulder length dark blonde hair and dirty clothing.

"You don't recognize me?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

He did recognize her, but she looked so different.

"This is what I looked like before that demon cut off my hair and dressed me like a slut." She said, not taking her eyes off of him.

"Meg?" he questioned, images of her as blonde and demon-possessed flashing through his head.

Her face broke out into a wide grin and she looked thrilled that he knew who she was.

"Hi."

* * *

Bobby couldn't move or shout. He could hear Sam outside of the truck looking for him but there was nothing he could do. He was just waiting for the two little girl ghosts to get it over with and kill him.

"Are you scared, Bobby?" One of them asked.

"We were scared, Bobby." The other said.

"When the monster came for us… and grabbed us tight."

"And we couldn't even scream. You were right there, Bobby."

"You were in the house."

"You were so close"

"Bobby!" he heard Sam yell.

"You could have saved us, Bobby."

"We're here, Bobby?" Sam continued his search.

"You walked right past that door." One of the little girls continued

"The monster had us. And you didn't find us." The other said, staring down at him with her cold, unfeeling eyes.

"And now they won't find you."

* * *

Dean lifted the gun threateningly as Meg advanced on him.

"It's ok, I'm not a demon." She assured him, raising her hands in surrender.

"You're the girl the demon possessed." He said, not missing a beat as he still didn't trust her.

"Meg Masters. Nice to finally talk to you when I'm not, you know, choking on my own blood."

She stepped forward and he stepped back, lifting the gun a little higher.

"It's okay. Seriously. I'm just a college girl. Sorry… was. I was walking home one night and got jumped by all this smoke. Next thing you know, I'm a prisoner…" she put her hand to her head as if to gestured to it.

"… in here. Now, I was awake. I had to watch while she murdered people."

"I'm sorry." Dean said, lowering his gun naturally as he felt regret for not saving this girl before she died.

"Oh yeah? So sorry you had me thrown off a building?" she demanded, her voice raising a bit.

"Well, we thought…" he began.

"No, you didn't think! I kept waiting, praying! I was trapped in there screamig at you! Just help me please! You're supposed to help people, Dean. Why didn't you help me?"

He searched his mind for something to say. Something to help this poor girl realize what happened.

"I'm sorry." He said, almost pleadingly.

"Stop saying you're sorry!" she yelled before throwing a powerful right hook at him.

He slammed to the floor as the gun flew from his hands. The sound of a shot from a gun shattered the air from downstairs..

"Meg. Meg…" he began trying to explain.

She kicked him in the ribs before he could get a chance.

"We didn't know." He gasped.

She knelt next to him, her face barely containing her rage.

"No…. you just attacked. Did you ever thing there was a girl in here? No. You just charged in, slashing and burning. You think you're some kind of hero?" Meg demanded.

He stared at her for a moment, looking deep into her eyes.

"No, I don't." he admitted.

Meg reached out a grabbed a hold of Dean's jacket. His eyes flickered down to notice a brand on her hand that looked strange.

"You're damn right. do you have any idea what it's like to be ridden for months by pure evil? While your family has no idea what happened to you?" she said, glaring down at him.

"We did the best we could." he said defensively.

Meg shoved him backwards and stood, kicking him again, this time in the face. Another shot rang through the air and Meg turned to look behind her.

"Looks like someone else is having a party." She said, looking back down at Dean.

"What do you want?" he said, feeling blood fill his mouth.

"It wasn't just me, Dean. I had a sister. A little sister. She worshipped me. You know how little siblings are, right? How they'll do anything for you. She was never the same after I disappeared. She just… she just got lost. And when my body was lying in the morgue beat-up and broken…" she trailed off.

"Meg." He gasped, trying to get her to stop.

"Do you know what that did to her? She killed herself!" Meg shouted with another well-aimed kick to his ribs.

He thought he might have heard a few of them crack under the sharp kick.

"Because of you, Dean! Because all you were thinking about was your family! You're revenge! And your demons! Fifty words of Latin a little sooner, and I'd still be alive. My baby sister would be alive! That blood is on your hands, Dean!" Meg yelled.

"You're right." he agreed through the sharp pain.

That earned him another kick to the face.

* * *

Bobby groaned as the girls moved away from him and towards the rear of the truck. Sam appeared, prying the doors open with a crowbar. The girls launched at him, pushing him backwards onto the asphalt. Bobby worked up the strength to stumble out. He saw Sam slash at one of the girls and she disappeared. Bobby grabbed a discarded tire iron and did the same to the other girl. As they stared at each other, they heard a shot ring out from the house.

"We gotta get back." Sam said, jumping up and running towards the house with Bobby hot on his heels.

* * *

**Ten minutes earlier**

Elena felt the air getting colder around her as woman's voice yelling upstairs caught her attention. She shivered as she stood to walk out, holding the gun tighter. Suddenly she heard a voice she never expected to hear again outside of her memories.

"Hello Elena." the soft voice said.

She turned to see her mother standing beside the table.

"Mom?" she whispered, looking her up and down.

She looked similar to the way Jenna did. Pale but not altogether unhealthy.

"You look so good. So healthy." Miranda Gilbert said, walking forward to place a cold hand on Elena's cheek.

"Mom." she cried, tears filling her eyes.

"Shh. There's nothing to cry about, darling. I'm here." Her mother said, putting both hands on her cheeks.

"You can't be here. You're a ghost." She sobbed.

"Just because I'm a ghost doesn't mean I'm not your mother, Elena." she assured her.

Elena looked into her dark eyes.

"Now I need to talk to you about something because I can't stay here forever." She said, her hands slipping away but she didn't move from her spot.

Elena nodded slowly.

"You shouldn't be here either." Miranda said, her eyes narrowing.

"It's ok, Mom. Dean and Sam and Bobby, they're good people. I know they are." Elena assured her.

"I don't mean here in this house. I mean here." Miranda said, looking around.

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked, confused at what her mother was saying.

"Elena, you shouldn't be alive. You were supposed to die in that crash over a year ago." Elena pulled away, looking at her with horrified eyes.

"Mom! Why would you say that?" she asked, the tears filling her eyes once more.

"Because it's true, Elena. Stefan should have never pulled you out of that river. You should be dead." Miranda said harshly, no longer the soft, soothing mother that Elena knew.

"No." she said, shaking her head as she lifted the gun to her chest.

"It's ok, Elena. I've come to fix it. If I just set everything right, it'll all go back to normal." the ghost said, stopping Elena's movement.

"Stop!" she cried, stumbling away as she lifted the gun into the air.

"You aren't going to shoot me, Elena. Now put the gun down and let me do this." Miranda said, advancing on her.

Her finger pulled the trigger before she could think and her wail of sadness was drowned out by the shot that rang through the air.

"How could you do that, Elena?" another voice demanded from behind her.

She whirled around to see her father standing there.

"Dad?"

"Do you know how much you disgust me, Elena? Befriending vampires? Giving your body to them? Letting them kill your brother and manipulate his mind? You are a horrible daughter." He said, glaring at her.

"No." she cried, unable to take hearing the harsh words from her parents' mouths anymore.

"You are an abomination, just like them. You should have killed all of those vampires the second you met them. You should have driven a stake through Caroline's heart the moment she killed that carnival worker. It would have been more merciful." He said, advancing on her.

"Stop!"

"You don't want to shoot me, Elena. You want to put down that gun and let me end it. Let me take you to where we're all waiting for you. Redeem yourself by giving up. Jenna, Miranda, Isobel, John. We're all waiting for you." he said, holding his hands out.

"Please, Daddy." she wailed, her body shaking as she pointed the gun at him.

"Just let go, Elena." he urged her.

She squeezed her eyes shut at the same time she squeezed the trigger. When she opened them, he was gone. Elena let out a sob but didn't let her body crumple to the floor like it wanted to. She staggered out of the kitchen and upstairs. She saw Dean crawling down the hallway into a room with a dark blonde haired woman following him. Elena ran up just as she heard her say something. Just as her foot came in contact with his face, Elena lifted the gun and fired it immediately, not hesitating as her body was more used to the powerful object by then. Dean looked up at her with surprise as she sighed and let the gun fall to the ground.

"Are you ok?" she asked, kneeling next to him as she took in the blood leaking out of his mouth.

He nodded, wincing visibly as he sat up.

"What about you?" he asked, reaching out to stroke her cheek that was still stained with tears.

"I'm fine." She said hoarsely, not wishing to rehash how she shot both of her parents.

She helped him to stand slowly as she heard Sam and Bobby thundering up the steps. They ran forward to help Dean. When they got him downstairs, he waved them off and walked to the study under his own volition. They followed him to discuss what was going on. After Dean told them everything that happened with Meg, a girl that they told her was possessed by a demon, Bobby explained about two little girls that he wasn't able to save from a monster.

"Who was shooting if you didn't have your gun?" Sam asked.

"That was me." Elena said softly, pulling her hair up into a bun.

They all stared at her.

"My parents showed up." She said simply.

"Did they try to kill you?" Dean asked, looking pissed at everything that was happening.

"They tried to convince me to let them kill me, saying that I was supposed to die in the car crash that killed them so they were just righting a wrong." She explained, wiping her eyes to get rid of the remaining wetness.

They all gave her sympathetic looks.

"So they're all people we know?" Sam asked.

Dean sat down, reloading his shotgun.

"Not just know. People we couldn't save." Dean said, shoving the rounds into the barrel.

"Hey, I saw something on Meg. Did she have a tattoo when she was alive?" he asked, looking up at Sam.

"I don't think so." Sam said, shrugging.

"It was like a… a mark on her hand. Almost like a brand." Dean said.

"I saw a mark too, on Henricksen." Sam said, nodding in agreement.

"What did it look like?" Bobby asked.

Sam grabbed a piece of paper and sketched something out, showing Dean when he was done.

"That's it." Dean nodded.

Sam handed the paper to Bobby, who inspected it.

"I may have seen this before." he said, walking to the bookshelf to grab books.

A thumping noise sounded from upstairs and they all looked at the ceiling.

"We got to move." Bobby said, grabbing a large stack of books and handing them to Sam.

Then another to Elena as Dean grabbed weapons.

"Follow me." he said, turning to run out of the room.

"Okay, where are we going?" Sam asked as they walked behind him.

"Some place safe, you idjit." He said, not looking back as he did.

He led them down to a basement and opened a heavy looking door. Inside was a bunker type room with a huge symbol painted on the door.

"Bobby, is this…?" Sam began as Bobby pulled the door closed, locking them in.

"Solid iron. Competely coated in salt. 100% ghost-proof." He said, looking around the room.

"You built a panic room?" Sam asked, sounding very impressed.

"I had a weekend off." the older man shrugged.

"Bobby…" Dean trailed off.

"What?"

Dean turned to face him, a grin on his face.

"You're awesome." He said, holding out a rifle that he got off of the weapons rack on the wall.

Elena shook her head as they laughed. When she caught sight of the picture of Bo Derek in a swimsuit on the wall, she turned to raise her eyebrow at Bobby, who shrugged and sat at the small desk.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, after pointing out every single weapon to her and what it could and couldn't kill (supernaturally speaking) Elena finally had a break from her education as the boys made salt rounds and Bobby read through books in strange languages. Dean looked up as though he wanted to say something.

"See, this is why I can't get behind God." She rolled her eyes as she leaned back on the one cot that was in the room.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, looking at him.

"If he doesn't exist, fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason. Just random, horrible, evil. I get it, okay? I can roll with that. But if he is out there, what's wrong with him? Where the hell is while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does he live with himself? You know, why doesn't he help?" Dean demanded.

Elena and Sam both looked at Bobby for help.

"I ain't touchin' this one with a ten-foot pole." Bobby said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah." Dean nodded as if Bobby made his point for him.

"I found it." the older man announced.

"What?" Sam asked, causing all of them to look back at him.

"The symbol you saw… the brand on the ghosts." He explained.

"Yeah?" Dean asked.

"Mark of the Witness." Bobby said.

"Witness? Witness to what?" Elena asked, confusd by the name.

"The unnatural. None of them died peaceful, ordinary deaths. See, these ghosts – they were forced to die whether it be by a demon possession or a car crash. They woke up in agony. They were like rabid dogs. It ain't their fault. Somebody rose them… on purpose." Bobby explained.

"Who?" Sam asked.

"Do I look like I know? But whoever it was used a spell so powerful it left a mark, a brand on their souls." Sam got up to walk over and look at the book.

"Whoever did this had big plans. It's called 'the rising of the witnesses'. It figures into an ancient prophecy."

"Wait, wait. What… what book is that prophecy from?" Dean demanded, standign up to walk over as well.

"Well, the widely distributed version's just for tourists, you know. But long story short – Revelations."

Elena stood as well, processing what the older man said. Dean and Sam looked at each other with trepidation.

"This is a sigh, boys." Bobby said.

"A sign of what?" Dean and Sam asked at the same time, sounding creepily alike.

Bobby sat back, sighing heavily as if this was the one thing he didn't want to say.

"The apocalypse."

* * *

"The apocalypse?" Elena questioned softly, walking up to the table.

"Yeah." Bobby said.

"The apocalypse, apocalypse? The four horsemen, pestilence, $5-a-gallon-gas apocalypse?" Dean asked, gesturing wildly.

"That's the one. The rise of the witnesses is a – a mile marker." Bobby said.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Sam asked.

"Raod trip. Grand Canyon. Star Trek Experience." Dean clapped loudly, pointing at Sam with a grin. Bunny Ranch."

Elena fought back her laughter, not wanting to encourage him.

"First things first. How about we survive our friends out there?" Bobby suggested.

"Great. Any ideas aside from staying in this room until Judgment Day?" Dean asked.

Bobby nodded and tapped the piece of paper in front of him. "It's a spell to send the witness back to rest. Should work."

"Should. Great." Sam laughed humorlessly, earning a glare from the older hunter.

"If I translate it correctly. I think I got everything we need here at the house."

"Any chance you go everything we need here in this room?" Elena asked hopefully.

"So, you thought our luck was gonna start now all of the sudden? Spell's got to be cast over an open fire?" Bobby said, smirking up at her.

"The fireplace in the library." Sam realized.

"Bingo." Bobby agreed, standing and grabbing weapons off of the rack.

"That's just not as appealing as a, huh, ghost-proof panic room, you know?" Dean asked, gesturing around the safer room.

Sam nodded as Elena sighed and leaned against the wall.

* * *

Armed with a smaller gun that Dean loaded with salt rounds and holding Bobby's spell book, Elena stood behind them as Bobby opened the door. They tried to get her to stay behind in the room but she threatened to torch the picture of Bo Derek. That made them shut up and let her go with them.

"Watch each other's backs." Bobby warned as they stepped out of the panic room.

Suddenly a voice came from the top of the stairs as they rounded the corner and approached them.

"Hey, Dean. You remember me?"

They looked up to see a young curly haired man sitting there with his elbows on his knees.

"Ronald, huh? With the lazer eyes. I wish I could say it's good to see you." Dean sighed.

"I am dead because of you!" Ronald said, standing up as his voice rose.

"You were supposed to help me!"

Bobby raised his gun and shot the figure, causing him to disappear.

"If you're gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk." He berated them.

Elena followed as they went into the library. Sam made a salt circle as Dean started a fire. Elena helped Bobby clear the desk for the spell.

"Upstairs. Linen closet. Red hex box. It'll be heavy." Bobby said to Sam.

"Got it." the younger Winchester brother said, turning to run out.

Two little girls appeared and said Bobby's name. Dean shot at them without hesitating. Giggling echoed around them.

"Kitchen. Cutlery drawer. It's got a false bottom. Hemlock. Opium. Wormwood." Bobby instructed.

"Opium?" Dean hesitated, giving Bobby a look.

"Go! Elena go with him him and cover his ass!" she followed Dean into the darkly lit kitchen with her gun raised.

As Dean pulled the drawer open and removed the cultery, the doors slammed shut, separating them from Bobby.

"Dean? Elena?" he shouted.

"We're all right, Bobby! Keep working!" Dean shouted as they looked around the room.

Elena shrieked and jumped away the same man that attacked Sam earlier appeared behind Dean.

"Victor." Dean acknowledged, staring at him.

"Dean." The man said.

"I know."

"No, you don't." Henricksen said, glaring at him.

Dean sighed.

"It's my fault you're dead. I left you behind. And the minutes I heard about that explosion, I thought, 'I should have known'. I should have protected you." Dean reached for the gun but it flew past Elena and across the room.

Her gun went flying out of her hands as well off in a different direction.

"Uh uh. Not so fast. You think you left and Lilith came and we all died in a beautiful blast of… white light? If only. 45 minutes." The man said, anger filling his voice.

"What?" Dean questioned, tilting his head slightly.

Elena was frozen in place by a strange force. It wasn't of her own volition that her feet remained rooted in place.

"Over 45 minutes Lilith said she wanted to have some fun. The secretary was first. Remember her? Nancy, the virgin? Lilith filleted Nancy's skin off piece by piece. Right in front of us, made us watch. Nancy never stopped screaming." Henrickson said harshly, advancing on Dean.

"No." Dean shook his head, trying to block out the words.

"I was the last." The man continued.

"Victor…" Dean said pleadingly.

Elena screamed as the ghost's hand shoved into Dean's chest. Dean choked and sputtered as Elena felt the hold on her release. She went scrambling around the kitchen to find the gun.

"Tell me how it's fair! You get saved from hell – I die. Why do you deserve another chance, Dean?" Henrickson demanded.

Elena's hands finally found her gun and she picked it up, whirling around and taking aim. She fired and the shot hit the ghost square in the chest, causing him to disappear. Dean fell to the ground and she rushed forward. The gun clattered to the ground as she kneeled next to him.

"Are you all right?" she breathed, helping him remain sitting up.

"No. I'm gonna need a damn ice bath after this night." He said hoarsely, pressing his hand to his chest.

Sam appeared in the kitchen and helped Elena help Dean up. She put her arm around his waist and helped him hobble into the study. The curly haired guy, Ronald, reappeared as Dean reloaded his gun.

"Ronald." He sighed, not stopping doing what he was doing.

Elena raised her gun hesitantly but the ghost didn't seem to be doing anything to hurt Dean.

"Hey, come on, man. I thought we were pals." Dean said with a smile.

"That's when I was breathing. Now I'm gonna eat you alive." Ronald growled, baring his teeth.

"Well… come on. I'm not a cheeseburger." Dean lifted the gun to shoot him but he'd already disappeared.

Bobby began reciting Latin and a window shattered, causing wind to blow around them and move the salt so that they were no longer protected. The same dark blonde woman, Meg, appeared and Sam shot at her. Ronald next, all of them shooting at him. As more and more ghosts appeared, they continued shooting. Henricksen managed to knock Dean's gun out of his hands but Elena shot him before he could do anything else. They were quickly running out of rounds no matter how many times they reloaded. Meg appeared again and trapped Sam against the wall with a desk, grinning at him as she did so.

"Sam!" Dean shouted.

"Cover Bobby!" Sam gasped as Elena ran over and tried to free him.

Bobby continued to recite the spell. Elena looked over in time to see Meg plunge a hand into Bobby's back, causing him to drop the bowl with the ingredients. Dean caught it in time and Bobby told him to throw it into the fire. As soon as he did, the flames turned blue and all the ghosts disappeared. Bobby fell to the ground heaving and Sam and Elena succeeded in pushing the desk away. Elena sighed with relief as she leanaed against the wall.

"Bobby?" Dean asked as the two boys helped him stand up.

Bobby nodded slowly as he took deep breaths, indicating that he was all right.

* * *

Elena walked in with Bobby's first aid kit. Dean was sitting on the couch wincing. Sam and Bobby were back in the study cleaning everything up.

"Where do you need patching up?" she asked.

"I'm fine." He grumbled.

"Don't lie to me." Elena said threateningly, pointing her finger at him.

He sighed and leaned forward. His hands went to the bottom of his shirt and she watched for a moment as he tried to lift it off with difficulty.

"Here, let me." she said without thinking, pushing his hands away as she slowly lifted his shirt up and over his head as he lifted his arms.

When it was removed, she found that her actions had pulled her closer to him and they were face to face. She inhaled deeply and slowly backed away, her eyes drifting down to his torso. She gasped. It was riddled with bruises and lacerations.

"That ghost did a hell of a job on you." she said, pushing him to sit back as she inspected the wounds that were leaking blood.

"Go ahead, say it. I got my ass kicked by a girl." he said, chuckling slightly.

Elena smiled up at him and shook her head. She opened the kit and pulled out alcohol and cotton to clean the wounds. He inhaled sharply each time the alcohol came in contact with his skin and she apologized each time. Luckily, none of the wounds were deep enough to warrant stitches. Her eyes traveled to the dark tattoo on his chest as she placed bandages over his ribs.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Devil's Trap. It keeps us from getting possessed. Sammy has one too." Dean said.

"Good idea." She nodded.

"Yeah well, getting possessed isn't exactly the greatest feeling in the world."

"I bet not." She agreed.

Then she had him turn around so that she could clean up the wounds on his back. Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything for the broken ribs that he most likely had as he refused to go to the hospital. When her fingers grazed over the dark patches marring his otherwise smooth and flawless skin, he shivered underneath her touch.

"I'm sorry. I just wish that there's something I could do about your bruises." She sighed, pulling away to place the last bandage.

When she looked back at the bruise she'd just been touching, it wasn't there anymore. Elena gasped and reached out touch it. He flinched when she prodded the clear skin lightly.

"Sorry! Did that hurt?" she asked.

"No it… it didn't." Dean said, his face flushing slightly red as he pulled the shirt back over his head.

"You're ticklish." She said, grinning.

"I am not." He said gruffly, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Yes, you are. You can't fool me, Dean Winchester. I know you're secret." She whispered in his ear before sliding off of the couch and gathering up the bloody gauze to throw it away.

* * *

Elena sighed as her eyes flickered open. They'd allowed her to take the only guest bedroom with an actual bed. But she couldn't go to sleep. She slid out of the bed and stood, rubbing her head that was twinging with pain. All of the activity of the day was rushing through her head all at once and it was making it hard to sleep. It didn't help that she kept imagining that someone was calling her name. She slowly walked out of her room and down the stairs. When she saw Daen and Sam on the couch and the floor, she felt regretful that they had to sleep that way. She should have allowed Dean to have the bed since he'd had his ass kicked by ghosts that day. She walked into the kitchen slowly and gasped, stopping short when she saw someone there.

When a hand came down on her arm, she jumped, turning to see Dean standing there. His eyes were on the unexpected figure as well.

"Excellent job with the witnesses." Castiel nodded.

Elena backed up to stand next to Dean, noticing that he was still wearing his jeans and a long sleeved shirt, in contrast to the flannel pajama shorts and ratty hoodie that she was wearing.

"You were hip to all this?" Dean demanded.

"I was, uh, made aware." The angel nodded, leaning back on the cabinets.

"Well thanks a lot for the angelic assistance. You know, I almost got my heart ripped out of my chest." Dean informed him.

"But you didn't." Castiel said simply.

"I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos – you know. Michael Langdon. Not dicks." Dean said, causing Elena to gasp at his insult.

"Read the Bible. Angles are warriors of God. I'm a soldier. Besides, you didn't need me today." Castiel sighed.

"I almost died. I doubt those are in God's plans for me, huh?" Dean snapped.

"Just because I was not here in person, do you think that I did not have the situation under control? Someone was watching over you." Castiel said.

"Who?" Dean scoffed, rolling his eyes.

He followed Castiel's eyes to Elena, who looked between them with wide eyes.

"Me?" she asked questioningly, unsure of herself.

"She was, after all, the one who shot the ghost who almost ripped your heart out of your chest." Castiel said.

Dean stared at Elena for a moment before turning back to the angel.

"If you're such a warrior, then why didn't you fight?" he demanded.

"I'm not here to perch on your shoulder. We had larger concerns." Castiel said mysteriously.

"Concerns? There were people getting torn to shreds down here! And, by the way, while this is all going on, where the hell is your boss, huh, if there is a God?" Dean said, sounding as though he was disgusted.

"Dean…" Elena said softly, placing a hand on his arm that he made no move to shrug off.

"There's a God." Castiel assured him.

"I'm not convinced. 'Cause if there is a God, what the hell is he waiting for, huh? Genocide? Monsters roaming the earth? The freaking apocalypse. At what point does he lift a damn finger and help the poor bastards that are stuck down here?" Dean growled.

"The Lord works…"

"If you say 'mysterious ways', so help me, I will kick your ass."

Castiel sighed and made a gesture of exasperation, looking away from Dean out of frustration.

"So, Bobby was right… about the witnesses. This is some kind of a… sign of the apocalypse."

"That's why we're here. Big things afoot." Castiel said.

"Do I want to know what kind of things?" Dean asked.

"I sincerely doubt it, but you both need to know. The rising of the witnesses is one of the 66 seals." Castiel said.

"Okay, I'm guessing that's not a show at Seaworld.

"Those seals are being broken by Lilith."

Dean nodded, realization dawning on him.

"She did the spell. She rose the witnesses." he said, frowning.

"Mm-hm. And not just here. Twenty other hunters are dead." Castiel informed them.

"Of course. She picked victims that the hunters couldn't save so that they would barrel right after us. But why pick ghosts for Elena?" Dean asked.

"Lilith has a certain snese of humor. And she sensed that Elena is important though she doesn't know how. All she wanted was for her to be out of the way." Castiel explained.

"How does this Lilith demon thing even know about me?" Elena asked.

Castiel's eyes bored into hers when he looked at her.

"Your name is far more widely known that you can even imagine." He said honestly.

"Well, we put those spirits back to rest." Dean threw in.

"It doesn't matter. The seal was broken." Castiel said.

"Why break the seal anyway?" Elena asked.

"You think of the seals as locks on a door." The angel said.

"Okay. Last one opens and…?" Dean asked.

Castiel paused, looking as though he would rather not say."

"Lucifer walks free."

Both of the humans remained silent for a moment as they took in the information.

"Lucifer?" Elena whispered.

"But I thought Lucifer was just a story they told at demon Sunday school. There's no such thing." Dean protested.

"Three days ago, you thought there was no such thing as me." Castiel said, slightly amused.

"Why do you think we're here walking among you now for the first time in two thousand years?"

"To stop Lucifer." Elena nodded, biting her lip.

For getting into this world only a few days ago, she was doing a pretty good job of realizing what everything meant. It was as though she was meant for it. Like everything was falling into place in her mind.

"That's why we've arrived." Castiel confirmed.

"Well… bang-up job so far. Stellar work with the witnesses. That's nice." Dean snapped sarcastically.

Elena watched as he began pacing.

"We tried. And there are other battles, other seals. Some we'll win, some we'll lose. This one we lost." Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"Our numbers are not unlimited. Six of my brothers died in the field this week. You think the armies of heaven should just follow you around? There's a bigger picture here." Castiel ranted, growing angier and angrier as he spoke.

"Castiel…" Elena began, wanting to calm him down before he accidentally smited Dean.

"You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of hell. I can throw you back in." the angel threatened, glaring at Dean before disappearing with the sound of his wings fluttering.

Elena and Dean stared at the spot where he disappeared from, their mouths slightly open as they processed everything he said.

"Lucifer." She murmured.

"Yeah. We're fucked." Dean agreed.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! Next chapter, Dean and Elena go on a little trip together and a lot of things are revealed. Review please!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Raven176, slayerdiaries, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Colleenrawr, cdsnow, DDamonSSalvatore, arizonagirl181, diehardromantic, chiwi, Dark Alana, helenamtavares, SweetCheeks94, and the two guest reviewers and everyone who read! Love you all and the support you have for this story!**

* * *

After the angel disappeared, Elena and Dean sat in the kitchen for about thirty minutes talking about how they were gonna break this to Bobby and Sam. Once they were done, Elena knew that there was no way she was getting to sleep after Castiel's visit. When Dean walked out of the kitchen and into the study, she knew that he expected her to go upstairs to the guest room. Instead she slipped out the door and into the warm night. When she walked down the steps and onto the gravel, she heard the door creak open.

"Stop!" Dean's hiss caused her to freeze in place.

She turned slowly to see him walking down the steps with a concerned look.

"What is it?" she asked, wondering what could possibly panic him.

"This gravel has glass all in it. Try walkin' all pretty when you've got a million shards in your feet." He berated her, his eyes narrowing.

Elena laughed, a warm feeling filling up her chest at his concern.

"You think I walk pretty?" she questioned, causing him to flush in the moonlight.

Before she knew it, he'd bent down and pulled her into his arms. She shrieked and clung to his shoulders as he lifted her into the air bridal style.

"You gotta be more careful." He warned her.

His face was very close to hers and caused her breathing to slow down considerably. She expected him to carry her to the porch but instead he carried her to the Impala and set her down on the hood.

"Stay here." Dean commanded, turning to walk back inside the house.

"Not like I can go anywhere else if want to keep walking pretty." She said, looking around at the glass filled gravel surrounding her.

He walked back out after two minutes with a plastic bag. She watched as he leaned on the Impala next to where she was sitting. Her legs dangled off as she scooted closer to see what he brought. He pulled out a six-pack of beer, chips, and chocolate.

"It's not brownies but I know that girls are supposed to like chocolate." Dean said, handing it to her.

"Hmm, well girls aren't supposed to be hanging out with guys she's known for three days in a creaky old house. I'm not like other girls." Elena informed him, breaking off a piece of the chocolate bar and popping it into her mouth with a grin.

He looked stumped, like he thought she might leave.

"I'm kidding, Dean. I couldn't leave you. Especially since I'm destined to do something great according to an angel… from heaven… and tonight I killed ghosts. I left a town where my boyfriend, his brother, and one of my best friends is a vampire and her boyfriend is a werewolf. The other best friend is a witch. My brother and my guardian both have rings that keep them from dying by any supernatural forces. Where do you go after that?" Elena asked.

Elena didn't know it, but Dean was stuck back on her saying, 'I couldn't leave you'. It was the first time anyone said that to him in his entire life. His father always told him that there would be a day he left and didn't come back and Dean couldn't wallow in grief if it happened. He'd raised his sons to be hardened warriors and they couldn't fall apart if he died. Sam did leave him to go to college and he never made any promises to stick around. Even Bobby knew the realistic nature of being a hunter and he was like a father to Sam and Dean. So to hear someone say that was foreign.

"What if your ex turns all good again? You won't go running back to him?" Dean asked, wincing at how harsh the words sounded coming out of his mouth.

Elena turned her big dark eyes on his and stared at him for a moment.

"I… there are just some things you can't forget. I know that it wasn't Stefan's choice to turn off his emotions but he didn't hesitate before dragging me in that bar to be slaughtered by Klaus. He tried to kill you even though I begged him not to. He would have just sat back while Klaus killed me if Castiel hadn't showed up. And it pains me to say all of it because he got into that situation in the noblest of ways. He was trying to save his brother. But Stefan has always had a problem keeping himself under control. His bloodlust is… Damon called him a ripper." She finished looking down at her hands.

"I know how hard it is to see someone you love going on a downward spiral." Dean said, his eyes flashing back to the house.

"Sam?" Elena asked, looking at him.

"Yeah." Dean nodded.

She didn't press him. If there's one thing she learned about these boys over the past few days, it's that they would tell you something in their own time and not a moment sooner. A popping sound filled the air and Dean handed her a beer.

"Wait." He said, drawing it away from her as she reached out for it.

"Are you underage?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Yes, Detective Winchester." She said, rolling her eyes and snatching it out of his hand.

As she took a sip, she fought back laughter at his fake concern over her age. She hadn't even started her senior year and probably never would. She was never going to graduate high school. Therefore she was never going to go to college. But after knowing everything she knew, could she really go back to having such a normal life? It's not like she left Mystic Falls wanting a normal life. But it kind of hurt to know that everything she ever dreamed about for herself: college, graduating, and journalism. It was all gone. She would never have a happy marriage with little babies in cribs and rocking chairs in cribs.

It was simply unrealistic to think about. It was scary enough to think about bringing a child into a world with vampires, werewolves, and witches. But now that she found out that it was a much bigger place than she ever thought full of ghosts, demons, angels, and other horrible things that she couldn't even imagine, there was no way it was going to happen now. And this realization was devastating. Before she knew it, tears filled her eyes.

"Elena?" Dean questioned.

He'd obviously been saying something during her self-realization moment.

"Yeah?" she said hoarsely, looking down at her lap, her hair forming a curtain between him and her.

"Hey." He murmured, pushing her hair out of the way and catching sight of the glistening tears on her cheeks.

Dean moved to stand in front of her and lifted her face to look at him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I never even graduated high school." She whimpered, her lip trembling.

"So? Neither did I. Join the high school dropout club. We have beer, apparently." He said, holding up his own bottle.

The joke did not give him the desired effect as she let out a soft sob.

"I can never have a normal life. My chance for a normal life ended when my parents' car drove off that bridge." She cried.

Now he was stunned into silence.

"Elena, out of all of us, I think you have the most chance for a normal life. There is nothing keeping you here." Dean said, gesturing to the house.

"No, trust me I know myself. I could never live in a white picket fence life knowing all that I know. I could never forgive myself if I chose to be so selfish as to ignore everything." Elena said, shaking her head.

Dean stared at her for a moment, taking in what she said with awe.

"It wouldn't be selfish, Elena. It would be normal." he assured her.

"It would be selfish! If I can help people and I choose not to, that would be horrible of me." she sobbed.

"Hey." He said, taking her face in his hands.

"If you want a normal life, all you have to do is say the word. You can run away from all of this. I wouldn't blame you. You don't have to be in this life." he said roughly.

Her hands came up to grasp his wrists.

"Why do you have to be in this life?" she murmured, unknowingly stroking the insides of his wrists with her thumbs.

He didn't seem to mind.

"Because I was raised to do this. This is my life and it's what I choose to do. You don't have to choose it." he assured her.

She remained silent, staring into his striking green eyes. It took them a moment to realize that they were mere inches away from each other. Elena opened her mouth to say something but a fluttering caught their attention.

"What do you want?" Dean asked, not taking his eyes off of her.

"Listen to me, you have to stop it." Castiel said, walking forward to stand next to them, not aware of the level of closeness that Elena and Dean were involved in.

"Stop what?" Dean asked, pushing away from Elena.

Castiel watched them for a moment before focusing his eyes on Dean again. Then he leaned forward and put two fingers to his forehead. Dean disappeared before anyone could say anything else.

"What did you do?" she demanded, staring in shock at the place where Dean once stood.

"He had to do something. Stop something." Castiel said mysteriously, looking back at where she was sitting on the bumper.

"Your lack of shoes concerns me." he informed her, looking down at the gravel.

"Yeah you and everyone else." She grumbled, trying to figure out how she was going to get to do the door without Dean.

"Do you need help?" the angel offered, stepping up and holding his hand out to her.

She took it hesitantly.

"Dean carried me to the car before. I…" she cut off when she felt as though all of the air was taking out of her lungs.

She gasped loudly and looked around to see that they were in the kitchen. Her hand was still firmly grasping Castiel's.

"What was that?" she breathed, her eyes wide as she stared at him.

"Angelic transportation." He informed.

"Like apparation?" she questioned, her mind going back to the Harry Potter books that she used to read with Jeremy.

His confused look almost made her laugh.

"I must leave. Dean will need my guidance." He said, turning away from her.

"I healed him!" she said, starting forward.

He turned to stare at her.

"At least I think I did. I was looking at one of his bruises and I wished that it would go away and it did. Is that possible?" His eyes widened as he strode forward, getting impossibly close to her.

"It's starting." Castiel said, staring deep into her eyes.

"What is?" she breathed, wondering what he could be talking about.

"Dean will need you too." He said, taking her hand.

"Wait!" she stumbled away, putting her hands up.

"For what?" he asked, looking stunned at her refusal.

"If we're going to apparate somewhere, can't I put appropriate clothing on?" she asked, gesturing to her pajamas.

"I think that would be best." He agreed, studying her ratty clothing.

"Thank you." she agreed, turning to walk upstairs.

When she reached her room, she dug through her bag. When she turned around to put on the clothing that she found, Castiel was sitting on her bed.

"Jesus!" she exclaimed, scared by his sudden appearance..

"No, Castiel." He corrected her, his brow furrowed.

She almost laughed at the confused angel that took everything literally. When she was done, wearing a pair of dark rinse skinny jeans, a black long sleeved lace top layered over a white tank top, a long dark red open front sweater that draped over her frame, and a pair of knee high black boots, she walked out while braiding her hair in one long braid over her shoulder.

"I'm ready." She said, reaching her hand out to Castiel.

He stood and reached out to her as well, touching her hand before she felt the same breathless feeling.

* * *

Her eyes opened and she looked around, seeing that she was on a street in the square of a town she'd never seen in the broad daylight. She squinted as she saw a figure moving on a bench across the street. It took her a moment to realize that it was Dean. As she hurried across the street, she saw him looking around with a stunned look.

"Dean?" she questioned as she walked up to him.

"Elena." he said, sounding thoroughly confused.

"Do you know where we are?" she asked, looking around as she walked up to stand next to him.

"I have no idea. Let's go into that restaurant." Elena said, put off by the people who were staring at them as if they were ghosts.

They walked inside Jay Bird's Diner and sat down at the bar. Dean sat next to a handsome young man and Elena sat on the other side of him.

"Hey, were the hell am I?" Dean asked the young man.

"Jay Bird's Diner." The man answered as he turned to look at him.

His eyes flickered past Dean and to Elena. She smiled slightly and he smiled back.

"Yeah, thanks. I mean, uh… city and state." Dean said.

The man laughed, looking back at Dean.

"Lawrence, Kansas." He answered, talking slowly as if Dean was stupid.

Dean's face paled a bit and he looked back at Elena with wide eyes before looking back at the man.

"Lawrence." He said, sounding like he almost didn't believe it.

"Hey, you okay buddy?" the man asked.

"Tough night." Elena threw out, watching as Dean looked around the restaurant.

"Hey, uh, coffee here, Reg." the stranger said to the man behind the bar.

"Okay, coming right up." The server said, nodding at them.

"Can you, uh, tell me where I can get reception on this thing?" Dean asked, pulling out his cell phone.

The stranger stared at the device for a moment.

"The USS Enterprise." He said.

Elena tried to hide her laugh behind her hand but was unsuccessful as Dean turned to give her a look. The server came up with the coffee and they noticed that he was in hippie clothing as if it was the 70's. Elena watched with wide eyes as he set the coffee in front of Dean. Suddenly it was all clicking into place for her but she couldn't exactly announce to Dean in front of everyone that an angel from heaven had possibly sent them back in time.

"Thank… nice threads. You know Sonny and Cher broke up, right?" Dean chuckled.

Elena groaned and let her head fall into her hands. She didn't know much but she knew that Sonny and Cher were still together.

"Sonny and Cher broke up?" the stranger asked, confused by Dean's words.

Elena watched as realization dawned on Dean. Then he leaned over and looked at the newspaper.

"1973?" he hissed to Elena.

"Castiel." She whispered back as an explanation.

"Hey, Winchester!" Someone said as the door to the diner opened.

All three of them turned, Elena and Dean obviously thinking that whoever said the name was addressing Dean. Instead he was looking past him at the other man.

"Son of a bitch. How you doing corporal?" the new man asked, holding out his hand to shake it.

"Hey, Mr. D." the young man said, smiling up at the older man.

They both stared at the scene unfolding with a lot of confusion.

"I heard you were back." Mr. D said.

"Yeah, a little while now." The stranger said.

"Good to have you home, John, damn good." The old man said, nodding at whoever this John Winchester from 1973 was.

"Dad?" Dean whispered, causing Elena's eyes to widen even more.

"Well, say hello to your old man for me." Mr. D said to John, clapping him on the back.

"You got it, Mr. D." John said.

When the conversation ended, John noticed them staring at him.

"Do we know each other?" he asked, obviously creeped out by their staring.

"No." Elena said quickly, grabbing Dean's arm in a gesture to keep him quiet.

John stood and grabbed his paper.

"Take it easy, pal. Good day, ma'am." He said, nodding at Elena before he left.

"Yeah." Dean said simply, turning to watch the young version of his father walk out the door.

After he was silent for a few moments, Elena decided they needed to talk about it.

"Dean, are you…" she began.

"We have to follow him." he said, cutting her off as he jumped up a slapped a few dollar bills on the table.

"Dean!" she exclaimed, running after him and out of the diner.

She caught up with him on the street.

"Dean we can't just follow your dad, especially if this really is the past. What if we change something and you're never born or Sam is never born. You have to stop Dean." She tried to urge him as they rounded a corner.

He stopped short when they came face to face with Castiel.

"What is this?" Dean demanded, inhaling deeply.

"What does it look like?" Castiel deadpanned, acting as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Is it real?" Elena asked, stepping forward to stand next to Dean.

"Very."

"Okay, so what? Angels got their hands on some Deloreans? How did we get here?" Dean asked, gesturing wildly as his panic came out.

The angel glanced around, taking in the town around him.

"Time is fluid, Dean. It's not easy, but we can bend it on occasion." He explained

"Well bend it back or tell me what the hell we're doing here!" Dean said, narrowing his eyes at Castiel.

"I told you, you have to stop it." Castiel said mysteriously, even annoying Elena a little bit.

"Stop what? Huh? What, is there something nasty after my dad?"

A car horn sounded as tires screeched and they both turned automatically to see what was happening. When they turned back, Castiel had disappeared once again.

"Oh come on! What, are you allergic to straight answers, you son of a bitch?!" Dean shouted into the air.

She sighed as he continued to walk in the direction that his father did. Her hands went up and rubbed her temples as she felt a slight pain in them. Castiel's method of transportation did not do her well at all. Why was she here? This seemed like it was more of a thing for Dean than her. She felt as though she was simply intruding upon a family affair even if John Winchester didn't know that he was conversing with his future son. She felt hands wrap around her wrists and pull her hands away from her face. Dean's concerned face came into her eyeline.

"You all right?" he questioned, looking her over for any injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go see what's going on with your dad." She murmured, pulling him in the direction the Winchester patriarch had gone.

They came across him at a used car lot. He was talking to a salesman about buying a van that looked like the van from Scooby Doo. When she caught sight of a familiar car, she smiled.

"Dean, look." she whispered, dragging him over to it as she tried not to catch the attention of the two talking men.

"Hey, it's my baby, almost forty years younger." Dean said, reaching out to stroke the thing.

He looked back at where John was trying to buy the van.

"I can't let him buy that thing." He decided.

Elena watched as he turned to where John was. The salesman was walking away looking triumphant.

"I think you're too late." She said.

"It's not the one you want!" Dean announced as John touched the van.

Elena shook her head. What was it with men and their cars? Correction, what was it with these Winchester boys and their cars?

"You following me?" John demanded, his eyes narrowed as he walked towards Dean.

"No no. We were just passing by." Elena assured him, stepping forward.

He stared at her for a moment, nodding slightly. He seemed to trust her a bit more than Dean, which was funny and ironic considering the relation between the two men.

"I never got to thank you for that cup of coffee this morning. I was a little out of it." Dean said.

"More than a little." John corrected, dropping his defensive stance a little.

"Let me repay the favor." Dean reached back and patted the hood of the Impala.

"This is the one you want." He informed the man.

"Oh yeah, you – you know something about cars?" John asked, smiling at Dean.

Dean nodded, looking nostalgic.

"Yeah… yeah, my dad taught me everything I know. And this… this is a great car." Dean pulled the hood open as he smiled.

As they bent over the engine, Elena could almost imagine John being twenty years older and standing over the car with a teenage Dean and instructing him about the parts. She leaned against the side of the car watching their eyes lit up similarly at the sight of what was under the hood.

"327 four barrel, 275 horses. A little TLC and this thing is cherry." Dean said, selling the car perfectly.

It made sense as he knew every single inch of the Impala.

"You know man, you're right." John nodded, inspecting the engine with a look of awe on his face.

Dean looked over at the van.

"Then what are you buying that thing for?" he asked, sounding a little offended at the thought.

"I kinda promised someone I would." John said, sounding almost ashamed.

"You promised a girl." Elena spoke up knowingly, smiling at him.

John flushed slightly.

"A girl? Over a '67 Chevy? I mean, come on, this is the car of a lifetime. Trust me, this thing's still gonna be badass when it's forty." Dean said.

John stared down at it reverently before standing up and holding his hand out.

"John Winchester." He introduced himself. "Thanks."

Dean stared at him for a moment before holding out his hand.

"Dean Van Halen – and thank you." he said, sounding sincere.

Elena choked back a laugh at Dean's name of choice and he gave her a look as John looked through the windows of the Impala. Elena's gaze wandered as Dean brought up how he looked in the diner. He tried to subtly question John about anything weird going on in the town. When he went too far, asking about cattle mutilations, she rolled her eyes.

"Okay, mister! Stop it." John said, sounding annoyed at his strange questions.

"Yeah. If only I knew what to stop. Listen, uh – watch out for yourself, okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure." John said, staring at Dean as he patted the Impala reverently.

"We should go." he said, passing Elena.

As they walked away, they heard John Winchester announce that he wanted the Impala. Dean smiled and Elena couldn't help but smile as well.

* * *

"So what do you think we have to stop?" she asked as they walked down the street.

"I have no idea. I guess just keep following Dad. I don't think that Castiel would have sent us back here if it didn't have something to do with him." Dean said.

She nodded, watching as he stopped on the sidewalk, staring at a small yellow car with interest.

"Why did Castiel send you?" he asked, turning to her, confused.

"Well I… there's something I have to…" she was cut off on her explanation by him walking forward and opening the passenger door to the random car.

He grinned back at her and gestured for her to climb in.

"Dean, this isn't our car." She said, walking up to it.

"Well now that Dad has a car, we can't really follow him on foot, can we?" Dean said, pointing to the black Impala that rumbled past them.

She sighed and looked at him.

"I'll return it." he shrugged.

After she was in and settled, she felt as though this was a horrible idea. Dean informed her that it was a sign when he found the keys hidden in the visor.

"I told you and him. You don't give up a '67 Chevy for a girl." Dean nodded as he followed John at a safe distance, stopping a few houses down as the car stopped and the young man climbed out. A beautiful blonde girl bounded out of the house and smiled at him. She slowed down when she caught sight of the Impala.

"What's this?" she asked slowly.

"My car." John said, gesturing to it proudly.

"What happened to the van?" the girl asked, her fake smile a warning sign to John.

"Mary this is better than the van! This has got a 327! And a four barrel carburetor!" John exclaimed, practically doing a happy dance around the car.

Dean's smile fell as he stared at the female.

"Mom?" he whispered.

Elena grinned at him.

"Some girl, huh?" she teased, nudging him.

He smiled back at her and then turned to look at the couple as the future Mary Winchester and mother to the man beside her leaned forward and hugged John.

"Sammy, wherever you are, Mom's a babe." Elena gasped and hit his arm, laughing at his description of his mother.

His smile dropped a bit and he sighed.

"I'm going to hell… again." He said, causing her giggles to increase.

* * *

Elena sighed as Dean insisted on creepily watching his parents have a date. She told him to do what he wanted and walked into a nearby convenience store to get whatever she could that was edible. It wasn't easy, but she did manage to find something for her and Dean. He'd given her a twenty and in that decade, a twenty bought a lot. As she strolled the aisles, she thought about what she would say to her friends and family if they knew what was going on.

"Dear people in my life, I visited the seventies. Oh yeah, Damon I could see you with that Sonny look. You see there's this angel who keeps showing up all over the place. He sent us back. Crazy, right? I agree." She grumbled, walking up to the counter.

"You all right, miss?" the cashier asked.

"I'm great." She said, smiling at him.

"Your clothes are a little strange." he said, staring at them.

Actually, he was staring at her boobs but what was the difference, right? She flushed underneath his gaze and pulled her sweater around her torso.

"Go to hell, you bastard." She snapped, Dean's dialect influencing her own choice of words.

Elena grabbed the bag and walked out of the store, walking back to where she left Dean. When she heard the sound of fighting, she ran up, waiting to see if Dean was fighting a demon or a mugger. As it turned out, his mother had him pressed up against the wall. Elena stood there frozen as Dean looked down at her charm bracelet.

"Are you a hunter?" he breathed, staring deep into her eyes.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm sorry I couldn't write more! I have three tests tomorrow for finals so I have to get to studying. I hope it wasn't too bad and please review! I'll finish up their little adventure next chapter and we'll get a little bit of information on how exactly Elena could heal Dean's bruise in the last chapter. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Raven176, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, slayerdiaries, Dark Alana, Beautiful Lie 5105, diehardromantic, Thera Rocklynn, SweetCheeks94, chiwi, Meowgli, neontreeslover, arizonagirl181, and the guest all for reviewing!**

**Just a warning, I'm shortening the storyline of this "trip" to make room for more Elena/Dean and even Elena/Castiel moments. No, Elena/Castiel will not be a thing. If anything, I'm going to make him a very good friend for her because I'm interested in giving them a close relationship.**

* * *

Elena watched as Dean walked up to the Campbell family home. John Winchester had just dropped Mary off. The blonde haired girl turned to look at Dean before she walked up onto the lawn.

"Dean, right? I'm not sure you should come in." she said, sticking her hands in her pockets.

Her eyes darted past Dean to Elena and narrowed considerably as her distrust of the two showed. After telling them to meet her later, she hurried back into the restaurant with John, not bothering to give him an explanation about her hunter status and leaving Dean to marvel over the fact that his mother was a hunter.

"You can trust me. I mean, come on, we're all hunters, right? I mean, we're… we're practically family." Dean said, smiling.

Elena shook her head, fighting the urge to laugh at him.

"Yeah, this is, my dad, he's a little, um…" Mary trailed off.

"Oh, I gotta meet him." Dean said, almost too desperately.

The blonde noticed, looking at him with squinted eyes.

"You've heard of him?" she asked.

"Clearly not enough." Dean said.

"He's not going to trust you. He would never trust a hunter who brings his girlfriend on a hunt." Mary said, her eyes going to Elena once again.

"Oh she's not my…" Dean began as Elena said, "we're not…"

Mary looked between them with a skeptical look.

"Right." she scoffed, gesturing to them as she walked up to the front door of the house.

They shared a quizzical look before following her up the steps.

* * *

The man of the house hadn't taken well to Mary inviting to strangers into the home but he allowed them to come and sit at the table. Well he invited Elena to sit at the table. Dean he left standing next to Mary, who was also apparently in trouble.

"So, you're a hunter? Well, tell me something, mister hunter, you kill vampires with wooden stakes or silver?" Samuel Campbell asked.

"Neither, you cut their heads off." Dean said, smirking at his grandfather.

Elena opened her mouth but he shook his head at her. Apparently hunters had never heard of the 'other kind' of vampire. They'd done a good job of keeping themselves hidden.

Elena bit her lip and sat back, watching the scene unfold before her.

"So, did I pass your test?" he asked.

"Yep. Now get out of my house." Samuel said, turning to face Dean.

Elena's eyebrows flew up. She could certainly see where the two Winchester brothers had inherited their tact.

"Dad!" Mary protested.

"I don't trust other hunters, Dean, don't want their help, don't want them around my family." Samuel said.

Elena made a move to get up but she saw Mrs. Campbell walk into the kitchen with silverware to set the table.

"Knock it off, Samuel!" she berated her husband.

"He's a hunter. Who brought his girlfriend on a hunting trip." Samuel said simply as if it was everyone reason not to trust someone.

Mary gave Dean and Elena a triumphant look as they opened their mouth to protest it once more. Mary's mother walked into the room and gave Elena a warm smile.

"Who passed your little pop quiz. And I think that him and his girlfriend are beautiful together, those she's a little bit too skinny so I am now inviting them to dinner. Are you hungry?" she asked, eyeing them.

"Starving." Dean confirmed, cheeks flushing at the fact that everyone assumed that they were together.

Elena didn't know why. They hadn't been within three feet of each other since they entered the house.

"Good. I'm Deanna. You've met my husband Samuel. Now wash up." She said, pointing at them before turning to walk out of the room.

"Samuel and Deanna?" Dean asked.

Elena fought back her laughter as she realized that Dean was named after a woman, nevermind that it was his grandmother.

Mary nodded, smiling at him.

"Really?" he said, nodding as he gave Elena a look that told her this information had best not get to Sam.

* * *

Ten minutes later, they were all sitting around the table to eat. Deanna looked over at Dean and Elena.

"First time in Lawrence?" she asked, looking between them.

"Well, it's been a while. Elena's never been here. Things sure have changed… I think." Dean said, looking thoughtful.

"You working a job?" Samuel asked, diving right into the hunter business.

"Yeah, maybe." Dean said mysteriously.

"What's that mean?" the patriarch demanded.

"It means I don't trust other hunters either, Samuel." Dean said instantly and Elena turned to stare at him.

She was always raised to know that houseguests should be kind to their hosts. Especially when that host was their grandparents and their mother. Mary, thankfully, came to the rescue to relieve the tension a bit.

"Hey, um, so why were you following me and John?" she asked, looking at Dean.

"I thought something was after your, um, boyfriend, but um, I don't think that anymore." he said, looking down at his plate.

Samuel choked out a laugh.

"John Winchester mixing it up with spirits, can you imagine?" he scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I saw that!" Mary said, glaring at her father.

Elena suddenly knew exactly what was coming. It was easy to spot when a teenage girl was about to get into it with her father about a boy.

"What?" Samuel said innocently, shrugging at her.

"That sour lemon look." she accused him.

"Now hold on, John's a really, really nice… naïve civilian." Samuel sighed, avoiding his daughter's glare.

"So what? You'd rather me be with a guy like this?" she demanded, gesturing to Dean.

Unfortunately, Elena had been drinking water when Mary said this and she proceeded to choke on it when she inhaled it at Dean's mother's words about her son.

"What? No, no. No!" Dean said, waving his hands with a panicked expression.

Deanna thumped Elena's back as she tried to breath and she nodded at her gratefully.

"It's all right, honey. Dean ain't my daughter's type. You got him all to yourself." She assured her quietly.

"No, it's not…" she wheezed, trying to regain her voice.

"Mary, of course not, it's just that I…" Samuel began to explain himself.

"That's enough, both of you, we have company." Deanna spoke up, berating her husband and daughter.

"So what about you, Samuel, you uh, working a job?" Dean asked, obviously shaken by the recent conversation.

"Might be." Samuel said evasively.

"He's working a job on the Whitshire Farm." Mary said, giving her father a challenging look.

Samuel gave her a look right back and they looked exactly alike in that moment.

"Whitshire, why does that sound familiar?" Dean said.

"It was in the paper." Elena spoke up, finally regaining her voice though it was a bit hoarse.

She'd seen it when they were looking at John's newspaper for the date in the diner earlier.

"That's right. Tom Whitshire. Got tangled up in a combine a few towns over." Samuel nodded at Elena, a bit impressed with her.

"That kinda thing happens." Dean said obviously, shrugging at the information.

"So why was he on it in the first place when his crops are all dead?" Samuel challenged him, leaning forward slightly.

"Demonic owens?" Dean asked, cocking his head to the side.

"That's what I gotta find out." Samuel said.

"What about the rest of the town? Well, did you find anything on the web?" Dean asked, realizing his mistake too late considering that the 'web' had never been invented.

They all looked at him strangely and Elena chose that time to speak up.

"Of information that you have assembled." She finished for him, smiling at them as she covered his mistake.

Deanna looked between them skeptically.

"Electrical storms, maybe. The weather service graphs should be here on Friday." She said.

"By mail?" Dean asked, sounding as though it were some insane concept.

"No we hired a jet liner to fly 'em to us overnight." Samuel said without missing a beat.

Elena hid her smile at his sarcasm behind her glass of water. Dean looked stunned for a moment before letting out a chuckle.

"You know it sounds to me like we might be hunting the same thing. You know if we go there in numbers, we could take care of this real quick." He offered.

"What part of "we work alone" do you not undertand, son?"

Dean nodded, sitting back as he folded his napkin. It was clear that the conversation and the dinner were over then and there. Elena copied his movements, setting the napkin underneath her plate and standing with him.

"Real sorry to have bothered you." Dean said, holding out his hand to shake Samuel's.

When they were done with the polite part of the farewell, Deanna walked them to the door.

"I'm sorry about my husband." She apologized.

"It's fine, ma'am. I know what it's like to have someone to protect." Dean said, nodding at her.

Deanna nodded and smiled.

"You keep taking care of her." she said, closing the door behind them.

"Okay what the hell is that about?" Dean demanded, walking down the steps as he messed with his jacket.

"Your own grandfather doesn't trust you? I don't know." Elena shrugged, smiling at him.

"No I mean everyone thinking we were together."

They stopped at the same time, turning to look at each other slowly. After staring at each other for a good minute, they both turned away.

"I have no idea." Elena said, fighting to keep her voice normal.

* * *

They found a motel just off the town square. Instead of getting two rooms, Dean automatically got one with double beds. The owner asked if he was sure about that or if he'd rather get the one bed, looking at the way Elena hovered beside him.

"Just the double is fine." Dean said, sounding a bit frustrated.

Elena bit her lip and looked away, really not wanting to see the look on his face when yet another person assumed that they were together. When they arrived at the room, she collapsed on a bed and put her hands over her eyes.

"I need to go get something. I'm gonna go out to that farm tomorrow to talk to the Whitshire widow. You don't have to go." she nodded, rubbing her forehead as she realized that her head was still throbbing dully with pain.

When he left, she pulled the blankets back on the bed and was surprised to figure out that she was exhausted after that day's events. The moment her head hit the pillow, her eyes fluttered closed and she fell asleep.

* * *

Elena jerked awake, sitting up straight in the bed. She looked wildly, trying to figure out where she was. When everything came rushing back to her, she remembered that she was in a motel room in Lawrence, Kansas in 1973. Just saying those words in her mind made her feel insane.

"You all right?" Dean asked from the bathroom.

He stepped out and was fully dressed. But he wasn't dressed in just anything. He was in a priest's garb. Elena choked back a startled laugh as she stared at him.

"Isn't that sacrilegious or something?" she asked, raising her eyebrow at him when she finally got her voice back.

"It gets people to trust me." he shrugged, checking his appearance in the mirror.

"Well excuse me if I stand back so the lightning doesn't hit me too." She said, standing up to walk in the bathroom.

"You're very funny." He said sarcastically.

"I think I've got a certain wit about me." she said, grinning at him over her shoulder before disappearing into the small bathroom.

After she washed her face and brushed her teeth, Dean knocked on the door.

"I'm heading out to the farm. I'll be back soon." He announced.

"I'll be here." She replied, turning to turn on the shower.

* * *

When she climbed out of the shower, walking into the room with a towel wrapped around her and her hair dripping water down her back, she jumped when she saw a figure standing by the door. She immediately recognized the tan trenchcoat and sighed with relief, clutching the towel tighter around her body.

"Hey, Castiel." She said, picking up her hand to wave at him as her heartrate went back to normal.

He turned and immediately crossed the room to stand in front of her. He was a bit close for comfort, his body mere inches from hers so that she could feeling the warmth exuding from him.

"Castiel…" she said, looking anywhere but at him.

"Yes?" he replied.

"You are standing really close to me and… well… I'm in a towel." She said, looking over his shoulder.

"Yes, that is why I came." He said, his voice even as if there was nothing strange about what he just said.

Her eyes flew to his in shock.

"You came… because I'm a towel?" she questioned, unsure of how to react to that piece of information.

"Yes." He backed away slightly and she inhaled deeply, a little less uncomfortable with the situation.

"In the past few days I've observed the small intricacies of human beings. There are many, I assure you. I noticed that women usually appreciate wearing different clothing from day to day. Especially females of your age group. So I brought you this." Castiel gestured to her duffle bag that was sitting on the chair where she hadn't seen it before.

A smile slowly bloomed on her face.

"Thank you." she said, touched by his kind gesture even if he thought it was nothing to be appreciated.

"Why did you let Dean go investigate alone? I sent you here to remain with him." Castiel questioned, becoming serious and detached again.

"He wanted to go alone." Elena said, walking over to pull out some clothes.

"I'm going to put on clothes. If you're not here when I come out, I swear I will leave and never come back as soon as you get me back to my time period." She threatened, not in the mood to put up with him being vague with her.

When she came back out, wearing dark wash jeans, a black tank-top under a red and black flannnel shirt with the buttons undone, and black converse, she was glad to see that he was still there. The angel looked a bit frustrated.

"Dean is often a stubborn human and he will try to convince you that he can handle situations alone. I did not lead you to him so that he could be going off alone and putting himself at risk. You have no idea what he's hunting, Elena." Castiel said.

She looked at him with narrowed eyes, feeling like a scolded child.

"Why did you lead me to him, Castiel? Why did you send me here? Why is it so important for me to be around Dean?" she questioned.

"There is a plan and you are involved in it." Castiel said, realizing that he might have said too much.

"That might work on Dean and even Sam but it's not going to work on me. If you want me to be a part of your plan, you need to tell me something. Does it have something to do with how I healed Dean? Because I tried to convince myself that I was insane for even thinking that it might have happened." She said, walking to the bed and sitting down.

He sighed and tugged at his overcoat.

"I am not an archangel, Elena. There are people that I answer to and they have instructed me to keep certain things quiet until they are ready to be revealed." He admitted.

"I'm not asking for you to tell me the whole story, Castiel. I'm asking for something. Something to tell me that I'm not crazy and that I was actually brought out of my life in Mystic Falls for something more important than being a damsel in distress for everyone to save." She said desperately, brushing her hair out with her fingertips.

He looked at her with a conflicted face.

"You have… certain abilities." He agreed.

"Healing?" she asked.

"Yes… and no." he said.

She sighed and dropped her hands, staring at him with an annoyed look.

"No in the way that you cannot go up to a random stranger on a street and heal any wound or illness they might have. There are guidelines." He said, sitting on the bed next to her.

"Okay?" she said, gesturing for him to continue.

"Your abilities were awoken when you were brought back after the ritual that the vampire performed." He said, a bit of disgust escaping from his voice as he said the world, 'vampire'.

"Because of the spell that Bonnie did?" she asked.

He let out a short laugh.

"The spell was dark magic. She didn't know it, but if the spell had raised you, there would have been consequences put on your shoulders. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop her and your father ended up dying because of that."

"Wait, if the spell didn't raise me… what did?" she asked hesitantly.

He looked at her expectantly, as if the answer was obvious.

"You?" she breathed, her eyes widening.

"That is also why the dreams began. Even though I did not brand you physically as I did Dean, I still left my mark on you. It was intentional. I needed you to see the dreams as a sign so that you would go after him. That was when I began to lead you to him." Castiel explained.

"Why was it so important that I find him?" Elena asked.

Castiel looked away.

"Will you be… punished… or something… if you tell me?" she asked hesitantly.

"There is a plan, Elena. And it does not include you finding out about everything so early on. I'm sorry but I cannot tell you any more." He said, standing up.

"Just tell me if it's a good thing." She said quickly, standing up before he could disappear.

"A good thing?" he questioned, turning around with his brow furrowed at her confusing question.

"The last time I was told that I was destined for something, I turned out to be the key to creating one of the worst monsters in the world. Please tell me that I am not going to make something bad happen again, please." She pleaded, really wanting to be a part of something good.

He stared at her.

"Whatever anyone might have told you in the past, Elena, you were not meant to create or cultivate evil from your birth. You were meant for more. You were created to be an irreplaceable helping hand to the Winchester brothers."

Elena stared at him, processing the information as he said it.

"You keep saying… created… as if you had something to do with it." she said slowly, her mind full of questions that she knew the angel would not answer.

He gave her a knowledgeable look.

"Like I said, we have a plan." He said before disappearing into the air.

She sighed and looked around, unsure of what to do. Especially since an angel just admitted that she was specifically created, not for Klaus' ritual, but for something to do with Sam and Dean. Her mind was confused and she knew that she wouldn't be getting any answers. Luckily, the duffle bag happened to have her favorite book in it when Castiel brought it. Unluckily, she couldn't stop thinking about the many different scenarios the angels had planned out for Dean and Sam with her along for the ride.

* * *

Elena was pulled out of her Jane Austen universe when a frantic knocking on the door startled her. She walked to it and opened it hesitantly. Mary was standing there with wide eyes.

"Dean is freaking out." she said.

That's all Elena needed to hear before she grabbed the key to the motel room and Dean's clothing, knowing he would probably want to change out of the priest garb and locked up, following Mary out. They climbed into Mary's father's car.

"What's going on?" Elena asked as Mary sped over to her house.

"I don't know. We went to the Whitshire house and found Dean there. We talked to the farmer's son and he admitted to talking to this man. It became obvious that the strange man was a demon when he said that he would come back in ten years to collect something from the son. But the kid said that it didn't have black eyes like most demons do. It had yellow eyes. Dean left immediately, ranting about a 'son of a bitch yellow eyed demon'. I think he knows who the demon is." Mary said.

Elena wasn't sure of what to say. When they arrived at the house, she jumped out of the car and ran up to the door, carrying Dean's clothing. She could hear him ranting as soon as Deanna opened the door and gestured for her to come inside. Following his voice was easy enough. But when she came face to face with his rage filled face, she almost wished that she hadn't done so. He was furious and she took a hesitant step forward.

"Dean?" she asked hesitantly.

Even Samuel was standing a few feet away from Dean and he didn't seem to be afraid of anything from Elena's point of view. It was a bit funny that they were both wearing the uniforms of priests. She put Dean's clothing on the table and walked up to him as he stared at the wall stubbornly. Before she made him talk to her, she knew that there might be things he said that his family could not hear.

"Can you give us a moment?" she asked, looking at the three alarmed Campbells.

They nodded and backed out of the room. Elena looked up at Dean's tall figure, his jaw set angrily and his eyes glaring at a particular spot on the wall.

"Hey." She said softly, laying a hand on his arm.

He didn't even react to her hand.

"Dean?" Elena said a little louder.

When he still didn't reply, she sighed and put both hands on his cheeks, forcing him to turn and look at her.

"Tell me what's going on." she said when his green eyes were finally focused on her.

He took a deep, shaky breath.

"He killed my parents." He whispered.

Elena felt her heart break for him a little bit. She hadn't been told exactly how John and Mary Winchester died.

"The demon?" she questioned.

He nodded.

"Is that what Castiel sent us back to stop? It can't be a coincidence that he sent us back to this time and place. If he knew that demon was going to be here…" Elena trailed off.

"I already killed that son of a bitch once. It will bring me great pleasure to do it again before he can wreak any havoc on my life." Dean said roughly.

"All right. Let's do it. How do we kill him?" Elena said, looking up at him.

He looked at her.

"There's only one way." he replied.

"Well, first things first. You have got to change. Because you and that outfit do not go together." She said, grinning at him as she gestured to the clothes that she brought him.

He chuckled slightly and took them, asking Deanna for a bathroom when he walked out of the room.

When he came back, he began to tell Samuel and Deanna the plan. Mary left, claiming that she had a meeting with a friend when they all knew that she was going to meet John.

"What do you say we just slow down and talk this thing through?" Samuel suggested, a little thrown off by Dean's plan.

"There's nothing to talk about." Dean replied, pulling an old journal Elena had seen him reading before out of his jacket.

"Except your'e saying it's a demon, and none of us has ever heard of a demon with yellow eyes." Samuel said.

"Yeah, well, I have. This thing killed my family." Dean said.

"Just calm down, son." Samuel urged, holding his hands out.

"You don't get it, do you? You are in danger. We are all in danger. In fact, you need to get yourself someplace safe."

"Not until we know what we're dealing with here." Samuel argued.

Deanna came in carrying food.

"Sam's right, Dean, it could be a demon. It could be a shapeshifter. It could be any number of things." she said knowledgeably.

Elena simply watched as the hunters argued over what was going on.

"I know what this thing is!" Dean snapped, flipping through the journal.

"And I'm gonna kill it, that's all the talking I need to do."

"You're gonna kill a demon? How?" Samuel scoffed, skeptical of Dean's plan.

"There's a hunter named Daniel Elkins. He lives in Colorado, he has Colt's gun. _The _Colt."

Elena had no idea what they were talking about this point.

"Yeah, I heard about the Colt, used to tell it to Mary as a bedtime story." Samuel said.

"Well, it's real." Dean said.

Samuel and Deanna exchanged a look.

"All right, say that it is. You got some kind of crystal ball telling you where this demon's gonna be?" Samuel asked.

"My dad's journal. This is a list that he put together of every single person he thought came in contact with the yellow eyed demon. Here, Whitshire farms." Dean said, pointing to the journal.

"I thought you said this thing killed your family. How did your dad write about something that happened two days ago?" Samuel asked, getting suspicious of Dean.

Dean looked back at Elena and she knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"Dean…" she said in warning, her eyes widening.

"We have to kill this thing now, or Mary dies." He said.

Elena sighed and pressed her mouth into a thin line. She wasn't an expert on time travel but she was pretty sure that telling someone from the past what happens in the future was a bad idea.

"What? How do you know that?" Samuel demanded, grabbing Dean's shirt.

"I just do, okay?" Dean said.

"So what are you, some kind of psychic now too?" the older man demanded.

"He's your grandson." Elena said, knowing that Dean was going to say it whether she did or not.

When they looked at her, Deanna and Samuel looking shocked and Dean looking grateful, she shrugged.

"She's telling the truth. Mary is my mother." Dean said, much to the shock of the older adults in the room.

* * *

"You wanna run that by me again, son?" Samuel asked, letting go of Dean and stepping back.

"My real name is Dean Winchester. I was born January 24th, 1979. My parents are Mary and John Winchester." He said, looking at Elena for back up as she nodded.

"I don't have to listen to this. Get out of my house. Deanna…" he began to turn to leave.

"Mary gets killed by a yellow eyed demon in 1983, and I think that this – what happened tonight – I think this is the moment that he caught her scent. Now, if we don't catch this thing now, and kill it, and it gets away? Then Mary dies. So I'm asking you, please." Dean said pleadingly, holding his hands out beggingly.

"Every bone in my body is aching to put you six feet under, but there's something about you – I can't shake it. Now, I may be crazier than you, son, but I believe you." Samuel said hesitantly.

"Thank you." Dean sighed.

"I mean, how do we find this bastard?" the older man asked.

"Right here, the list." Dean said, pointing to it.

"And with the Colt?" Samuel asked.

Dean nodded.

"Well let's go get it." Samuel shrugged.

Dean hesitated, his eyes flashing to Elena.

"I can go get it myself. I don't let anyone else handle the gun." He said.

"I'm your grandfather." Samuel said, sounding as though the word was foreign on his lips.

He stood and crossed to Deanna, throwing his arm over her shoulders. She looked slightly uncomfortable, as if Samuel had done something wrong. When he looked over at Elena, she saw something in his eyes. A strange flash… of yellow. She gasped but found that she was unable to speak or even move at all.

"It's nothing personal." Dean shrugged, closing the journal.

"Sure it is, especially when it's me you're trying to kill." He said, his eyes turning fully yellow.

Suddenly Dean was slammed into the wall. He looked murderous when he realized that the demon was possessing Samuel. The yellow-eyed demon turned and snapped Deanna's neck easily, causing Elena to scream as she got her voice back. She was able to move and she collapsed on her knees next to Deanna, checking her pulse. The demon didn't pay her any mind as he walked towards Dean.

"Future boy, huh? Yeah I could smell something weird all over you and the girl. It shocked me that you never noticed that I wasn't your precious granddaddy." He said tauntingly, reaching out to pat 's cheek.

"I only know one thing that's got the juice to swing something like that. You must have friends in high places. So, I kill your Mommy? That's why you came all this way? To see little old me?" he asked, turning to Elena.

"Oh, I came here to kill you." Dean promised him, glaring at him.

"Hey, wait a minute, if that slut Mary's your Mommy, are you... are you one of my psychic kids?" the demon asked, confusing Elena as she stood to glare at him.

Her eyes flashed around the room for anything that she could find as a weapon. She watched with disgust as the demon leaned in and sniffed Dean.

"No, not you. Maybe you got a sis, or a bro. That's terrific, means it all worked out. After all, it's why I'm here." The demon said, sounding triumphant.

"So that's what this is about, these deals you're making. You don't want these people's souls." Dean realized.

Elena caught sight of a small knife under a few papers on the table. She started to slowly shift towards it so as not to get the demon's attention.

"No, I just want their children. I'm here to choose the perfect parents, like your Mommy."

"Why her? Why any of them?" Dean demanded, his face red as he tried to struggle against the demon's hold on him.

"Because they're strong." He said simply.

"They're pure, and they eat their Wheaties. My own little master race – they're ideal breeders."

Dean furrowed his brow as Elena made a disgusted face. Who would possibly agree to breed with a demon?

"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. No one's breeding with me. Though, Mary? Man, I'd like to make an exception. So far, she's my favorite."

Dean let out a growl and tried to move, unsuccessful in doing so. His eyes met Elena's as she slowly slid the knife out from underneath the papers without making a sound.

"So why make the deals?" Dean asked, trying to distract the demon from catching onto what she was doing.

"I need permission." He said simply. "I need to be invited, into their houses, I know, I know, the – the red tape'll drive you nuts, but in ten short years, it'll all be worth it. 'Cause you know what I'm gonna do to your sibling? I'm gonna stand over their crib and I'm gonna bleed into their mouth. Demon blood is better than Ovaltine, vitamins, minerals – it makes you big and strong."

"For what? So they can lead your discount demon army? Is that your big plan?" Dean said, his voice taunting.

"Please, my end game's a hell of a lot bigger than that kid." The demon scoffed, grinning at Dean.

"End game? What end game?" Dean asked, confused.

It threw Elena off. He said that he killed the demon in the future so he must have known what the end game was.

"Like I'm gonna tell you, or those angels sitting on your shoulder. No, I'm gonna cover my tracks good."

"You can cover whatever the hell you want, but I'm still gonna kill you." Dean promised him.

"Right. Now that, I'd like to see." The demon said, leaning in to get uncomfortably close to Dean's face.

"Maybe not today, but you look into my eyes, you son of a bitch, 'cause I'm the one that kills you." Elena stopped short, catching sight of Dean's face.

It was unlike any face she'd seen on him thusfar. With Castiel, he'd been almost resigned and a bit sad. With the ghosts, he'd been even sadder. But with this demon, there was pure fury radiating from every pore of his body. His eyes were cold and hard, determined. For the first time, Elena fully understood what the term 'hunter' meant. They weren't silly men who killed ghosts and demons for kicks. They were warriors, hardcore and devoted to their path of life. They were passionate and they would kill every evil bastard that got in their way. Elena knew that she should have been scared, seeing the look in Dean's eyes. But for some reason, she felt even more drawn to him, to protect him.

"So, you're gonna save everybody, is that right? Is that it? Well, I'll tell you one person that you're not gonna save." The demon said, whirling around and stepping forward to grab Elena.

One of his hands wrapped around her throat and the other clasped the wrist of the hand that held the knife. She sputtered and coughed as she tried to take in air. The demon glared into her eyes, tightening his hold around her wrist. She stared at him with shock as he began to guide the blade to his own chest. As the knife slowly dug into his heart, Elena cried out while Dean yelled at the demon to stop. When the blade was buried in his chest, the demon grinned at Elena.

Then he threw her into the air and she hit the wall with a crash, coming down hard on her side. Pain radiated through her arm and she cried out in pain as she felt a warm liquid spreading through her shirt. Something had been underneath her when she landed and it was currenly slicing into her stomach. She struggled up to a sitting position to see that she'd landed on a chair and broken it. One of the shards of wood had dug into her stomach. She gasped in pain and reached down to pull it out.

"Elena!" Dean shouted.

She looked up at him, pained tears blurring her vision. She stared at the demon as he pulled the blade out of his chest and turned to Dean.

"You can't save yourself, Dean Winchester." He said, driving the knife into his stomach.

"No!" Elena screamed, barely finding enough strength to keep herself upright.

The demon grinned back at her before disappearing. Her adrenaline shot up as she watched Dean crumple to the floor. She staggered to her feet, ignoring the shooting pains. When she reached his side, she collapsed on her knees next to him and turned him over. His eyes were closed and his face was quickly draining of color.

"Dean!" she cried hoarsely, pulling the knife out of his gut.

He didn't respond. Her hands pressed over his wound and she thought about what she'd been doing when she healed his bruise.

"Come on!" she wailed, feeling his blood pour out over her hands.

"Castiel!" she screamed, her voice blood-curdling as she screamed his name.

She felt rather than heard the angel appear.

"It's not working." She sobbed, looking up at him.

The angel kneeled next to her.

"Stop, Elena." he said, pulling her away from Dean.

"No! I can't! I have to save him!" she said desperately, not knowing where her sudden hysterical need to keep this man alive came from.

"Elena your body is using all of its strength to keep you alive right now. We have to fix you before we can fix Dean." He said, trying to get her to focus.

She nodded, taking in gulps of air as Castiel reached down to push her shirt out of the way. It ended up getting in the way even more so he resorted to ripping it. She was too tired to argue with him and her strength was quickly fading. The pain increased tenfold when Castiel pulled the wood shard out of her stomach. She screamed and bent over, Castiel catching her as she almost hit the ground. She cried in his arms as wave after wave of pain radiated through her torso.

"You can do this, Elena." he said, pushing her back up to a sitting position. "Take my hand."

She fought back the pain and did so, squeezing it as hard as she could, not caring whether it hurt the angel or not.

"Breath." He instructed her.

Elena followed what he told her what to do.

"Now concentrate. You need strength. You need to heal Dean but you need to heal yourself first. At some point you'll be able to do this by yourself but your abilities are still developing so I'm giving you some power to do it." Castiel said.

Elena nodded weakly. Suddenly she felt a tingling warmth spreading through her body. Her strength was returning and she inhaled deeply. When she looked down, she saw blood covering her abdomen but the wound wasn't there anymore. Instead of acknowledging that she'd just healed herself with Castiel's help, she turned to Dean and put her hands on his wound once more. Castiel's hands covered hers.

"Remember to breath." He whispered.

She could feel his eyes on her as her own eyes fluttered closed.

"Concentrate on what you want to do and it will happen." Castiel said.

The same tingling feeling flowed out through her body. Only this time it flowed to her hands and she felt it leaving her body. When it stopped, she sat back to breath heavily. Castiel nodded at her when her eyes opened. She looked down and lifted Dean's shirt to see that his wound was healed as well. Suddenly Dean sat up, inhaling sharply. Elena cried out and threw her arms around his shoulder automatically. His hands wrapped around her and he held her close as tears ran down her face. When she drew away, he looked over her and took in her tattered and bloody shirt.

"What the hell happened?" he demanded.

"You were both gravely injured." Castiel said from where he was still kneeling.

There was a little blood on his hands but other than that he was unruffled.

"Castiel healed us." Elena said.

The angel looked at her with surprise. It wasn't a total lie. They would not have been healed if it wasn't for his presence. She remembered him telling her that it couldn't all be revealed at once. She knew that Dean couldn't know yet so she had to protect the secret for now until it was safe for him to know what she could do.

"Mary. We have to get to Mary. The demon is going after her." he said, jumping up and pulling Elena with him.

When they looked around, they saw that Castiel had disappeared.

* * *

Dean drove up quickly to an abandoned lakefront. The Impala was there but there were three people on the ground. Mary and the demon were kneeling and John was crumpled in her arms looking not so alive.

"No!" Dean shouted as the demon leaned in to kiss Mary.

The demon turned and his eyes flashed yellow in the headlights as they jumped out. Dean pulled out a gun and pointed it at the demon but he threw his head back and a strange black smoke poured out of his mouth. Elena watched with horror as it stopped and Samuel's dead body collapsed to the asphalt. Mary looked at them with tears running down her face just as John inhaled and stirred in her arms. She looked down at him and smiled before stroking his cheek.

Elena reached out and took Dean's hand as his face contorted with emotion. They hadn't stopped in. In fact, their actions may have invaritably jumpstarted everything. They heard the flutter of wings and Castiel's hand touched Dean's shoulder in an almost comforting motion. When they both turned to look at him, they felt the familiar pull of his 'angelic transportation'.

* * *

They appeared in the kitchen. Dean staggered away from them and into a chair at the table.

"I couldn't stop any of it. She still made the deal. She still died in the nursery, didn't she?" he said, his voice filled with devastation.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. You couldn't have stopped it." Castiel deadpanned, looking out the window.

"What?" Elena demanded, turning to stare at the angel.

"Destiny can't be changed. All roads lead to the same destination." The angel said, turning to face them.

"Then why'd you send me back?" Dean questioned, his anger building.

"For the truth. Now you know everything we do." Castiel said, his eyes flashing between the two.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Elena asked, confused at his words.

Castiel looked past them and into the living room. The couch was empty, the blankets tossed aside and Sam was gone.

"Where's Sam?" Dean demanded.

"We know what Azazel did to your brother. What we don't know is why – what his endgame is. He went to great lengths to cover that up." Castiel informed them.

"Where's Sam?" Dean growled.

"425 Waterman." Castiel said simply.

Dean stood, pulling his keys out of his pocket.

"Your brother is headed down a dangerous road, Dean, and we're not sure where it leads." The angel said as Elena followed Dean towards the door.

"So stop it. Or we will." Castiel warned

They both turned back to look at his deadly serious face. He nodded at them before disappearing.

* * *

**Author's Note: I know! Another cliffhanger! Don't hate me! REVIEW PLEASE!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Beautiful Lie 5105, Dark Alana, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, cdsnow, slayer diaries, Thera-Rocklynn, Krissie, LilyNightShade, neontreeslover, chiwi and the guest for reviewing.**

**If you are reading this I would like your input. I already know what the deal is with Elena's abilities and even why she has them. I'm not making this up as I go along and I've had it planned from the beginning. So the next step falls to you, my lovely readers. **

**If you are so curious that you want me to reveal the backstory to Elena's abilities and everything in the next chapter, I will. But if you want me to keep dragging it out a bit, dropping little hints every once in a while to keep up the suspense, I will do that as well. It is up to you. Review please and tell me what you think. If I don't get enough reviews, I will figure out what to do myself but I like letting my readers have a little say in what happens in some aspects of the story.**

**I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to have a little bit of Elena/Sam bonding time in this chapter. Also, we'll have a little bit of a TVD character.**

* * *

Elena looked over at Dean as he sped down the road towards Sioux Falls. They looked like a pair, with their clothing both in tatters and blood covering them. Anyone normal who saw them would think that they were just in the climax scene of a horror film.

"Dean…" she said softly, wanting to ask him the question she'd wanted to ask for a while now.

He glanced over at her, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckls were white.

"Yeah?" he grunted, his voice rough and tired.

It had been a full twenty-four hours since either of them had slept and she knew that he had to be as exhausted as she was. Elena figured that the effort that it took to heal both herself and Dean, despite the fact that Castiel helped her, had exhausted her body.

"Never mind." She decided, turning her face away to the window.

"You can ask me whatever it is." He said.

Elena looked at him, surprised that he knew she was hesitant to ask a question.

"I just… I've put some of the pieces together and I know that it's probably difficult for you to talk about. But how did your parents die, exactly?" she asked hesitantly, looking down at her hands in her lap.

Dean sighed and she opened her mouth to tell him that he didn't have to tell her.

"When I was young and Sam was a baby, that yellow eyed demon attacked my mom. He did just like he said, giving Sammy demon blood. Then he… he burned my mother alive. My dad got me and Sammy out just in time and that's when it all started. As Sam and I grew up, my dad dragged us around country. He was doing jobs and we were jumping around schools. All this time he was training us to fight. Eventually he started taking us on the hunts with him.

Then Sam left, tired of the life. He graduated high school and went to college. Dad didn't take that too well and they had a falling out. When he finally caught up to Azazel, that's the yellow-eyed demon's name, he went off on his own without telling me a word. So I went and fetched Sammy from college. We started following Dad's tracks, hunting things along the way. When we were finally onto him, the yellow-eyed demon figured out that we were onto him and had one of his minions attack all of us. I was in a coma." Dean cut off, his jaw tightening as he looked out onto the road.

"You don't have to tell me." she said, wanting to erase the devastation from his eyes.

"Dad made a deal with Azazel. I was dying and he traded my life for his." Dean said.

Elena stared at him, wishing that there were something she could say.

"You hate him for that." she suggested.

Dean looked back at her, shocked at her statement. Elena might have thought she was wrong until she saw the look in his eyes that confirmed her statement.

"You never asked to be saved. You never… wanted… someone to sacrifice their own life for yours." Elena said, turning look at the window as a lump formed in her throat and tears stung her eyes.

Dean remained quiet for a moment.

"When my parents' car crashed over the bridge and Stefan came down into the water to save us, my dad was awake. He was still alive."

Her voice caught as she thought of her father's warm, smiling face.

"He could have gotten out. He could have been alive. But he was so… selfless… that when he saw Stefan swim down, he made him take me."

Tears began flowing down her face.

"By the time Stefan got me out and went back down, they were both dead. My dad gave up his life for me… and I didn't even get a say in what happened." She whimpered, staring at her reflection in the window.

"And then, almost a year later, after I've discovered that my world is not at all like it seemed, after I find out that I was adopted and that my real parents are my vampire hating uncle and my aunt's boyfriend's wife, who everyone thought was dead but was really turned into a vampire by Damon, my boyfriend's brother who tortured and compelled my best friend within an inch of her life, the same best friend who is now a vampire at my doppelganger's hands.

Then I find out that I'm destined to be sacrificed by a sadistic one thousand year old vampire. That same vampire turns my aunt into a vampire and sacrifices her as well. But not before my bleeding heart boyfriend shows up at the ritual site and offers himself up as a vampire instead. So willing to die for me so that my last few moments weren't spent mourning my aunt. But Klaus didn't take the bait. He sacrificed my aunt anyways, who went into her death saying that she was a failure because she didn't protect me enough and that she was going to be strong for me.

Then I wake up after having my blood drained by an insane hybrid only to find out that my biological father… forced my other best friend, a witch, to do a spell that will allow him to trade his life for mine. I didn't ask for it. I certainly didn't know that such a spell existed and if I had, I would have banned anyone from using it. I would not have let anyone give up their life for me. I would have stopped them. I hated my biological father for giving himself up for me more than I hated him for every single other shitty thing he'd ever done in the past." Elena said, dropping her head into her hands.

She was pulled out of her devastating memories when the car came to a stop and a warm hand touched her shoulder. Elena lifted her head to look at Dean.

"When you were hurt earlier, you were dying. So was I but I didn't care. All that mattered is that you were dying. I know it's strange and I know that we've only known each other for a few days but all I could think was, not him too. He is not allowed to die on me. Then Castiel showed up." Elena said, looking deep into his emotion filled green eyes.

"It's not strange." he said.

"It's not?" she questioned.

"No, it's… it's not." Dean said as he drew closer to her.

"You were there in hell. You were beautiful, the most beautiful thing in that damn place. I remember looking up at you and I actually felt hope that there might be something past this pain. Because such a beautiful, pure woman couldn't be there, crying over me as I suffered, if there wasn't. You kept me going… for forty years." He whispered.

"Forty years?" she asked, confused.

"For every month that I was down there, it was ten years for me. I saw you at sporadic times, mostly when I was in the most pain. You would be there hovering over me, giving me something to look forward to."

Elena felt so much pity and sadness for this man. He'd literally lived through hell and it was a miracle that he came out the other side a semi-normal human being.

"Dean." She whispered, putting her hands on his cheeks.

"But then… even that wasn't enough." He whispered, his eyes dropping and she saw them glistening with unshed tears.

"Every day after I was tortured, my torturer would offer a way out. He said that if I picked up the knife and started torturing some other poor bastard, I would never have to be tortured again. For thirty years, he made me that offer every single day. I would spit the blood in his face and tell him to go fuck himself. But then… one day… I just couldn't anymore. I hadn't seen that beautiful girl, you, in a whole year. I was weak, and I lost my hope again." He said, staring down at his hands.

"I'm so sorry." She murmured, taking his hand on one of hers and leaving the other one on his cheek.

He still didn't look up at her.

"I said yes." He whispered, his voice failing him as he shielded his eyes from her.

Elena sighed and pushed his chin up so that he would look at her.

"Thirty years, Dean. You were tortured for thirty damn years. You were tortured, stitched up and put back together again, and then tortured all over again the next day. Do you know that most people would last a few days, at most?" she asked, staring deep into his eyes.

He didn't answer, just staring at her.

"You were tortured for over 10,000 days. That is a hell of a feat. And you cannot blame yourself for the people you tortured. If it hadn't been you, it would have been someone else. That person was not put in pain because of you. You were merely the weapon they used because it was another way that they could break you." she murmured, squeezing his hand gently.

Dean took in a shuddering breath and Elena realized that they were very close to each other. At that moment, the Impala felt very warm around them. It suddenly dawned on her exactly what the Campbells had seen between them. The electricity flowing between them was undeniable. But it was impossible. She was a silly eighteen-year-old and he was a strong warrior, a hunter. It wouldn't happen because there was no possible way she'd even be a blip on this amazing man's radar.

But they were rather close. Dean's gaze slid down her face to her lips and she unconsciously licked them. Before they could do anything else, the air around them was shattered by a guttural scream coming from inside the warehouse that Dean had pulled up to. They both turned and looked at the lettering on the wall. It read 425 Waterman.

* * *

As they walked inside, Dean holding his shotgun and Elena holding a small gun he'd handed her, they were silent as they walked. She was behind him at his insistence. They heard voices in the distance. They came across a strange scene. A man was tied up in a chair, sweaty and bloody, and Sam and the snotty girl from the hotel room were standing over him. The girl looked unbothered and the demon-killing knife was clutched in her hand. Elena stared at her, her eyes narrowing. It looked like there was more to the snotty girl than met the eye.

"Where's Lilith?" Sam demanded, the name on his lips capturing their attention.

Dean gestured for Elena to keep quiet and they both remained in the shadows, hidding by some empty boxes piled up.

"Kiss my ass." The man growled, his eyes going black as he glared at Sam.

Sam smiled tauntingly.

"I'd watch myself if I were you." he said with a threatening tone.

"Why? Huh? Because you're Sam Winchester, Mr. Big Hero? And yet here you are, slutting around with some demon. Real hero." The demon scoffed, looking at the girl.

Elena's mouth dropped open when the demon accused her a being a demon herself.

"Shut your mouth." Sam snapped.

"Tell me about those months without your brother."

Elena's hand automatically flew out and clutched at Dean's when he made a move to interrupt. They couldn't, not yet.

"Tell me about all the things you and this demon bitch do in the dark." The demon spat.

The girl looked at Sam with annoyed eyes as the younger Winchester's anger grew.

"Huh? Tell me, hero." The demon taunted, grinning at him.

Sam's hand suddenly shot out and smoke began pouring out of the man's mouth and into the ground. The girl watched with a triumphant grin as Sam inhaled deeply and the man slumped in the chair. She looked over at Sam and he smiled back, nodding at her. Sam reached over and checked the pulse of the man. He turned to smile at the female demon and nodded.

"How'd it feel?" she asked, tossing the demon killing knife from hand to hand.

"Good. No more headaches." Sam said as he untied the man.

"None? That's good." The girl said, helping Sam pulling the man, who was waking up, out of the chair.

"Hey, hey. We got you. It's all right." Sam assured the man, who seemed to be back to human.

Dean finally chose to step into the light and both Sam and the girl stopped short.

"What the hell happened to you?" Sam said, taking in Dean's bloodsoaked appearance.

"So… anything you wanna tell me, Sam?" Dean asked, obviously pissed.

Elena stayed in the shadows, clutching the gun in her hand when she saw the girl's eyes flash at Dean.

"Dean, hold on, okay? Just let me…" Sam began, his voice desperate.

"You gonna say, 'let me explain'? You're gonna explain this? How about this? Why don't you start with who she is, and what the hell is she doing here?" Dean demanded, gesturing to the girl.

She looked completely calm and even smiled as she crossed her arms.

"It's good to see you again, Dean." She said.

Dean stared at her for a moment and a flicker of recognition sparked in his eyes.

"Ruby?" he asked, his mouth forming the word as if it was some sort of vermin.

Dean looked at Sam with a disgusted look as Elena remembered hearing something about the demon Ruby in a conversation earlier.

"Is that Ruby?" Dean growled, becoming angry again.

Suddenly he launched at the dark haired girl and yanked the knife out of her hand, shoving her against the wall.

"Don't!" Sam yelled, unable to do anything as he was supportly the half-unconscious man.

The two continued to struggle and Sam finally set the man in the chair before launching at Dean and pulling him away from Ruby. He wrestled the knife out of Dean's grip and Dean shoved him against the wall. As soon as Ruby had her arm around his neck and was pinning him against the wall, Elena felt a pull as anger shot through her. She launched out of the shadows and threw the gun to the side, grabbing Ruby from behind and throwing her onto the ground, glaring down at her. The demon shot to her feet and glared at Elena, who stood in front of both Dean and Sam protectively.

"Ruby." Sam said, trying to get her attention off of Elena.

"Ruby he's hurt." He said when she ignored him. "Go."

She sighed and walked to the man, lifting him out of the chair and putting his arm over her shoulder.

"Well aren't you an obedient little bitch?" Dean growled from around Elena's protective stance.

When the demon disappeared, Elena relaxed and stood there, stunned, as she tried to figure out exactly what just happened.

"Dean." Sam began, his voice breathless.

Dean reached out and put his hand on Elena's back, steering her out of the room.

"Dean!" Sam called as they walked out of the warehouse.

* * *

Elena remained quiet during the drive to Bobby's house. She didn't want to bother Dean but she was curious as to how Sam managed to pull the demon out of the man without any spell or anything that Dean told her was necessary to exorcise a demon. When they got home, the lights were on as the sun was rising. Bobby must have been awake and confused at all of them not being there. When they walked into the house, Dean began to throw his things into a bag, ignorant of Bobby's questions.

Elena informed Bobby softly that the younger Winchester was apparently working with a demon to get rid of other demons, though she didn't say how. That was up to the brothers to explain seeing as she didn't even understand it. Sam entered a few minutes later, obviously having a car that was either stolen or Ruby's. Elena and Bobby stood to the side as Sam walked to Dean.

"What happened to you and Elena?" he demanded, gesturing to their gruesome appearances, watching as Dean packed.

Dean ignored him, continuing his hunt for his things to throw into the bag.

"What, are you, are you leaving?" Sam scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"You don't need me. You and Ruby go fight demons." Dean said gruffly, picking up his bag to take to the Impala.

"Elena, you coming?" he asked.

"I'll go pack." She said, nodding as she turned to walk upstairs.

Castiel had already said it once and she wasn't going to ignore it this time. She had to stick with Dean. But he also said something about her protecting both brothers. So she had to stick with Sam as well. How was she possibly going to convince the brothers to get in the same car together without alerting them to something being wrong.

"Hold on. Dean, come on, man." Sam said, standing in the way of the door.

Dean reared back and punched him. He flew back by the force. Sam reached up and touched the blood leaking out of his lip as Elena gasped and her hands flew to her mouth.

"You satisfied?" he said, sounding resigned to it.

Dean, apparently, was not satisfied as he punched his brother again.

"I guess not." Sam sighed, wiping the blood away.

"Do you even know how far off the reservation you've gone? How far from normal? From human?" Dean growled, glaring at him.

"I'm just exorcising demons." Sam said, defending himself weakly.

"With your mind!" Dean shouted, dropping his bag as he gestured wildly.

"What the hell?" Bobby demanded, catching wind of what was going on.

"What else can you do?" Dean asked, a bit calmer.

Elena stood back, watching the scene unfold helplessly.

"I can send them back to hell. It only works with demons and that's it." Sam said, his hand help up in surrender as he faced the two furious hunters.

Dean grabbed his shirt and pushed him backwards into the wall, walking forward to hold him there.

"What else can you do?" he bellowed, his face turning slightly red.

"I told you!" Sam shouted back, pushing him away.

"And I have every reason in the world to believe that." Dean scoffed, reaching down to pick up his bag again.

"Look I should have said something." Sam said, obviously trying to appease his brother.

Dean stopped on his path that led to the door.

"I'm sorry, Dean. I am. But try to see the other side here." Sam said desperately.

Dean turned to face him once again.

"The other side?" he said, his voice soft yet dangerous.

"I'm pulling demons out of innocent people." Sam said, smiling slightly.

"Use the knife!" Dean thundered.

"The knife kills the victim! What I do, most of them survive! Look, I've saved more people in the last five months than we save in a year." The younger man said, holding his hands out desperately.

"That what Ruby want you to think? Huh? Kind of like the way she tricked you into using your powers?"

Sam shook his head, obviously saddened by Dean's words.

"Slippery slope, brother. Just wait and see. Because it's gonna get darker and darker, and God knows where it ends." Dean warned him.

"I'm not gonna let it go too far." Sam assured him.

Dean scoffed.

"It's already gone too far, Sam. If I didn't you know... I would wanna hunt you."

Sam looked at his brother with an unbelieving look, tears filling his eyes at his words. He nodded slowly, looking down at his feet.

"And so would other hunters." Dean assured him.

Elena took a step forward to stop them before they started hurting each other even more but Bobby stopped her.

Sam looked up at Dean, his eyes a bit hardened.

"You were gone. I was here. I had to keep on fighting without you. And what I'm doing... It works."

"Well, tell me. If it's so terrific... then why'd you lie about it to me?" the elder brother demanded.

Sam looked down, ashamed, at Dean's words.

"Sam, Castiel told us to stop you." Elena said, ignoring Bobby as she pushed past him.

Sam looked at her, surprised.

"What?" he asked.

"Cas said that if I don't stop you, he will."

Elena was surprised by Dean's shortened name for Castiel but she was even more surprised to find that it actually fit the angel perfectly.

"See what that means, Sam? That means that God doesn't want you doing this. So, are you just gonna stand there and tell me everything is all good?" Dean demanded, not even noticing his shortening of the angel's name.

His voice broke on the last syllable and they both looked at each other sadly. But they were no longer angry and that was a good thing. The silent moment was interrupted by the shrill sound of Sam's cell phone ringing.

"Hello?" he asked when he put it against his ear, his voice a little rough.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to collect himself.

"Hey, Travis. Yeah, hey." Dean's interest was peaked when Sam said the name.

"Uh... It's good to hear your voice, too, yeah. Um, look, it's not a really good time right now. It's… yeah, okay. Uh, well, just give me the details, and, uh… Carthage, Missouri?"

They watched as Sam walked to the table and wrote down information on a piece of paper.

"Looking for Jack Montgomery."

He put down the pen as he ended the phonecall. Elena watched as he looked over at Dean with a look akin to a kicked puppy dog.

"A job?" Dean asked, clearing his throat after he spoke.

"Yeah." Sam agreed.

"You should go." Elena said.

They looked at her.

"Both of you." she nodded, eager to find the perfect way to keep them together.

"Only if you come with." Dean said, his face softening a bit when he looked at her.

This did not escape the notice of Sam and Bobby and they filed it away to ask about later.

"Let me go pack and wash the blood off. You should too." She said to Dean with a smile, turning to walk up the stairs.

When she got back down, she saw Dean and Sam walking towards the car. As Dean began to get into the driver's side, she ran forward and ripped the keys out of his hand.

"What? Hey!" he protested as she walked around the car and handed them to Sam.

"You haven't slept in twenty-four hours. You're not driving." She said, pushing Sam to go to the other side of the car and gesturing for Dean to sit in the passenger's seat.

* * *

After about thirty minutes of uncomfortable silence in which none of them spoke, Dean began telling Sam about their trip back in time. Sam listened with wide eyes as Elena sat in the backseat with her eyes closed. She smiled when Sam finally spoke.

"I can't believe it. Mom, a hunter?"

"I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't seen it myself. That woman could kick some ass. I mean, she almost took me down." Dean said, grinning despite himself.

"How'd she look? I mean... was she happy?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, she was awesome. Funny and smart. So hopeful." Dean said, nodding.

He looked over at Sam for moment and then back out of his window.

"Dad, too. Until of course..." he said, trailing off.

Sam sighed heavily and Elena opened her eyes.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Nothing." Sam replied, looking out of the windshield at the road.

After a moment he turned back to look at Dean.

"It's just, our parents. And now we find out our grandparents too? Our whole family murdered and for what? So Yellow Eyes could get in my nursery and bleed in my mouth?" he said, sounding sad.

Dean and Elena both realized what Sam said at the last moment, both of them staring at Sam.

"Sam, I never said anything about demon blood." He said slowly.

Sam looked guilty and that was enough to make Dean angry again.

"You knew about that?" Dean asked.

Sam still didn't look at Dean, refusing to look anywhere but at the road.

"Yeah, for about a year." He mumbled.

"A whole year?" Dean said, sounding surprised but then again, not so much.

"I should have told you. I'm sorry." Sam said, looking at him.

"You've been saying that a lot lately, Sam. But whatever. You don't want to tell me, you don't have to. It's fine." Elena suddenly felt as though she was intruding on a very private conversation.

"Dean." Sam sighed.

Dean didn't take his focus off of the scenery outside of the window.

"Whatever." Sam sighed.

Elena sighed and closed her eyes.

* * *

After about three hours of driving, the car pulling into a gas station woke Elena up. She slid out while Dean went inside to get beer in preparation for their hotel stay. That's how he put it. Elena watched as Sam pumped the gas. Making up her mind, she climbed out of the car and stood beside him.

"Your mom was really beautiful, Sam." She said, laying her hand on his arm.

He turned to smile at her but then looked back at the ground with sadness on his face.

She sighed and leaned against the car next to him.

"I don't pretend to know what's going on and I don't need to be told. It's none of my business. But I can tell you that no matter what, I'm here if you need to talk. I know you don't know me well but listening is pretty much all I'm good at so I will be here for you no matter what you have to say." She assured him.

She heard a dinging noise and looked to see Dean walking out of the station with a few bags in his hands. Elena turned back to smile at Sam before walking to Dean.

"You are getting in the back this time, mister." She instructed, taking a few of the bags from him.

"Oh yeah? And why am I doing that?" he asked with a smirk as he followed her.

"Because you need sleep and you can stretch out back there. Also, I think it's about time Sam and I got to listen to something other than Zepplin." She said, gesturing for him to climb into the car as Sam grinned at her words.

"This is my baby. Don't you two forget it." he said, pointing at them before climbing in.

Elena grinned up at Sam before she climbed into the passenger seat as well.

"Sleep." She instructed Dean before plugging in her iPhone with a wink towards the younger Winchester.

"I'm going to turn the first song on to piss him off. Don't worry we won't listen to music like it the whole way." she whispered to Sam in reassurance.

Dean's horrified gasp the song came on was enough to put grins on both of their faces.

"Oh Mickey you're so fine! You're so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey!" Elena sang, dancing along to the music.

When she caught sight of Dean's look in the rearview mirror, it set her off on a tirade of giggles. Sam danced along with her and it made her laugh even harder.

"You've been around all night, and that's a little long. You think you've got the right but you've really got it wrong. Why don't we say goodnight? So you can take me home, Mickey?" Sam sang, much to Elena's amusement.

She turned to see Dean glaring at them both.

"I thought you liked eighties music." Elena shrugged, reaching out and turning it up before winking at him and facing the front again to dance.

"Oh Mickey what a pity you don't understand!" Elena and Sam broke out together.

"Dude, I'm embarrassed for you that you know this song!" Dean yelled over the music.

"You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand!" the two freaks in the front seat reached out and grabbed each other's hands on that part, grinning at each other.

"I only like this song when there are girls in short skirts dancing to it and waving their pom poms in my face!" Dean growled, spreading out on the seat and attempting to block out the assault on his ears.

"We don't need to hear about you sleeping with cheerleaders, Dean." Elena sang, turning down the music as she scrolled through her songlist to find another one.

She'd had her fun with Toni Basil and Dean's pouting look would be seared into her mind forever to use for future blackmail.

"Why do you know that song, Sam Winchester? Anything you want to tell me?" Elena asked, grinning over at the younger brother.

"Despite what Dean tries to say differently, I knew cheerleaders and they always danced to this song." Sam said, making Dean smile slightly.

"We didn't _always_ dance to it." Elena said, rolling her eyes.

These words caused Dean's eyes to fly open and Sam to look over at her with wide eyes.

"You were a cheerleader?" Dean asked, sitting up and leaning over the seat to look at her.

"Yeah." She said slowly, leaning away from his smirking face.

"You should not have told him that." Sam sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Do you still have the uniform?" Dean asked, grinning at her.

"Ugh! Go to sleep!" she exclaimed, shoving him backwards and shaking her head while laughing at his antics.

When he finally stopped taunting her, Dean actually fell asleep pretty quickly. Sam looked back at him then at Elena.

"Dean kept going on and on about Mom… but what about Dad?" Sam asked, looking unsure as he asked her.

Elena looked at him with surprise before nodding.

"He was… well I think he'd just gotten back from the war. He seemed pretty well adjusted. He was actually nice, polite. Very much in love with your mother." Elena said.

"Good, that's good." Sam said, nodding as he stared out the window.

"You don't really want to talk about your dad." Elena guessed.

Sam sighed and shook his head.

"I don't think he's gonna forgive me this time." he said, looking back at his sleeping brother.

"Trust me, Sam. If there's one thing I know about siblings from being a sibling, it's that they forgive eventually, even if it's not when you want it to happen. I've done regretful things when it came to my brother and I was so sure that he was not going to forgive me each time but he did. Just stay patient. It was a shock to him." Elena said reassuringly.

"I just got so lost after he died. I mean I literally held him in my arms after that hellhound attacked him. He was gone and I had no idea what to do. I kinda slid into the whole exorcising demons thing." Sam said, rubbing the steering wheel anxiously.

"Well maybe… I don't know… you should take a step back. Not permanently, but just until we know why the angels wanted you to stop. They can't be telling us to stop you for no reason, Sam. Maybe there are dangers involved in it that you don't even know about it." Elena said, looking at him.

He pressed his lips together and stared out of the window thoughtfully. Thoughtful was better than angry or resentful. Thoughtful was good.

* * *

When they arrived in the town of Carthage, Missouri, she noticed that there was nothing remarkable about it. They immediately went to a motel, wanting to set up a home base. She walked into the office, watching as Dean pulled out a credit card. He set it on the counter, asking for a double room. When Elena opened her mouth to argue, Dean claimed that Sam could sleep on the couch. She sighed and snatched the credit card out of his hand before he could put it back in his wallet. When she looked down at the card, she could barely contain her giggles. Perhaps it was her exhaustion, but she had to duck out of the office to get herself under control.

When Dean and Sam walked out, she looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears that came from her laughing attack.

"Really? Chris P. Bacon?" she questioned, a wide grin on her face as she held up the card.

"What can I say? I like crispy bacon." Dean shrugged.

"First of all, this is fraud. Second of all, I'm sleeping on the house, Bacon." She said, pointing at him as she handed him the card and walked away towards the car.

"You're just jealous that yours isn't as awesome as mine." Dean shrugged, catching up with her as he pulled both her bag and his out of the car as well as a bag of weapons.

"My what isn't as awesome as yours?" she asked suspiciously.

Sam fell into step with her and handed her a small plastic ID card. The birthdate said that she was twenty-two but that wasn't nearly as bad as the name.

"Candy Kane!" she shouted, looking at Sam with narrowed eyes.

He shook his head and pointed at Dean, who was laughing.

"You asshole!" she yelled, punching his arm.

"What? You don't think you look like a Candy? I had Bobby make it just for you." Dean said, guffawing as he opened the motel room's door.

"I sound like a stripper!" she argued, stomping into the room.

"Ask Sam what his says." Dean urged her, throwing the bags on one of the beds.

She turned to him as he looked at his own license with hesitation. He rolled his eyes before glaring up at Dean.

"Jack Hoff? Really, Dean?" he asked, unamused. **(Sound it out if you don't get it. I didn't at first when I asked my sister for a funny name)**

Elena tried to hold back but she couldn't help but let out a hysterical giggle. Dean looked very proud of himself.

"I didn't laugh at you for Candy Kane!" Sam said, staring at her as if she'd betrayed him.

"I'm sorry! It's just… really funny!" she exclaimed, clapping her hand over her mouth as she laughed.

Sam still didn't crack a smile and she attempted to get herself under control.

"And really immature." She said, clearing her throat to try to end her laughter.

"Even if you don't know better, Bobby really should." She said to Dean, moving towards the bathroom to go take a shower since she hadn't had one since about a day and a half ago.

"Are you kidding me? Bobby is more immature than me." Dean scoffed, pulling out the beer to put on his bedside table.

Elena rolled her eyes and walked into the bathroom. When she got out, she cursed her luck. First of all, she'd left her clothes out in the room. She really needed to start bringing them into the bathroom with her. The towel experience with Castiel was uncomfortable enough. Now she was possibly going to have to repeat it in front of two brothers. She wrapped the uncomfortably short towel around her body and opened the door slowly, peeking out.

Dean and Sam were standing at the door arguing about something. She sighed and waved her hands in an attempt to get the attention of one of them. They continued arguing.

"If you would just listen to my side of things, Dean, we wouldn't have as many problems." Sam snapped.

"Sam?" She said hopefully, wanting him to see her and give her the bag.

"Oh wow. All because I said we should hide the beer." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Dean?" she called, waving her hand.

"It isn't about the damn beer, Dean!" Sam exclaimed.

Elena sighed and hoped that, since they were so involved in their argument, that they wouldn't notice her slip out and grab her bag. She should have known better. As soon as she tiptoed out of the bathroom, they stopped and turned to face her as if she'd clapped and yelled to get her attention. She sighed and stopped, glaring at both of them.

"Seriously? Can one of you give me my bag, please?" she sighed, gesturing to it.

Dean moved forward and picked it up, handing to her.

"Thanks, crispy." She said, rolling her eyes as she turned to walk back to the bathroom.

"Oh, and having an argument about hiding beer, kinda ridiculous." She informed them before she walked in to put on clothes.

* * *

Elena sighed when they pulled up to the outside of Jack Montgomery's house. Dean and Sam pulled out binoculars and she rolled her eyes at their 'spy' abilities.

"Are you sure that's him?" Dean asked as they looked at the window.

She looked down at her hair as she braided it into two braids on either side of her head, securing them both with a black hairband.

"Only Jack Montgomery in town." Sam replied.

"And we're looking for…?"

"Travis said to keep any eye out for anything weird." Sam shrugged.

"Weird?" Dean asked, smirking slightly.

"Yeah." Sam confirmed.

"All right, well, yeah, I've seen big weird, little weird, weird with crazy on top. But this guy? I mean, come on, this guy's… boring." Dean said, grimacing as he continued to look through the binoculars.

"I don't know, Dean. Travis seemed pretty sure." Sam sighed, obviously annoyed by Dean's skepticism.

"Who's Travis?" Elena asked, munching on a sandwich that they got from Subway for her.

"Old hunter friend of our dad's. He knew us when Sammy here was still in middle school." Dean said, turning to her and offering her the binoculars.

"You wanna see the boring guy?" he asked.

She smiled and took them from him, leaning forward to look through him. She focused on the window and saw a guy in a white polo digging through his fridge. He came out with a package of ground beef.

"So he's making himself dinner? Dean's right he is…" she trailed off when she saw exactly what he had planned for the ground beef.

This Jack Montgomery ripped into the package and began to devour the raw beef.

"… boring." She finished, pulling the binoculars away from her eyes and handing them back to Dean with a disgusted look.

"Anyone want the rest of my sandwich? I might throw up now." She said, leaning back and holding her stomach.

"Not in the Impala." Dean warned her, pulling the binoculars up to his face.

"I'd say that qualifies as weird." Sam said, as disgusted as Elena was.

* * *

When they got back to the motel, Elena trotted behind the boys as they discussed what the supposedly boring guy could be. When Dean opened the door, they all entered to see a man sitting at the table in the room. A grin bloomed on Dean's face.

"Travis." Sam said happily.

The man, Travis, was sitting at the table with a beer in one hand and a cast on the other.

"See, Sam. Told you we should have hid the beer." Dean said, nudging his brother.

Travis got up with a grin.

"Get over here." He said.

Sam and Dean both hugged him. When he caught sight of Elena, his eyebrow raised.

"And who is this?" he asked, pushing the boys away to look at her.

She flushed under his gaze but didn't back down as her automatic instict told her to. She was a new Elena and new Elena was confident.

"Candy Kane, apparently." She said dryly, glaring at Dean.

The man guffawed.

"One of your comical aliases?" he asked, looking back at Dean, who nodded with a triumphant grin.

"My name is Elena Gilbert. You must be Travis." She said, holding out her hand.

"Honey, if you're travelin' with these boys, you're family. And if you're family, we don't shake hands." The man said, pulling her into a hug.

She let out an 'oomph' noise before relaxing and hugging the man back, meeting Dean and Sam's eyes behind him. They shrugged as he pulled away.

"I gotta tell you, Dean has a tendency to come up with some of the funniest fake names I've ever heard. Did he ever tell you about the ID he gave to his dad when the old man was going to Tallahassee?" Travis said, steering her to the table past the brothers.

"No, he didn't." Elena said with a smile, sitting down when he gestured for her to do so.

"God, that kid was such a smartass when he was a teenager."

"Just when he was a teenager?" she said, smirking over at Dean, who was smiling as he sat on a bed with Sam facing them.

"You caught onto that, huh? I don't know why John kept him in charge of the fake ID's. Apparently he thought it was a good idea. All of us warned him that it was a horrible idea. John learned his lesson when he pulled out his FBI badge, at a crime scene mind you, and the name on there was Agent Jack Kass." Elena let out a pealing laugh at the name and covered her mouth as the men all laughed with her.

"God, I missed you boys. Man, you got tall, kid." Travis said to Sam.

The men all laughed as Elena accepted a beer from Travis.

"How long has it been?" he asked Dean and Sam.

"Gotta be, uh, ten years?" Sam asked, looking at Dean for confirmation, who nodded.

"You still a… oh, what was it… a mathlete?" the older man asked, grinning at Sam as he handed him and Dean a beer as well.

"No." Sam scoffed, looking down.

"Yep, sure is." Dean said, nodding.

"You were a mathlete? That's so precious!" Elena exclaimed, much to the other two men's amusement.

"Been too long, boys. I mean, look at you. Grown men. John would have been damn proud of you. Sticking together like this." Travis nodded, taking a gulp of his beer.

"Yeah we're thick as thieves." Dean said, tilting his beer in Travis' direction before taking a long sip.

Sam's smile faltered a bit.

"Nothing more important than family." He said, adding salt to the wound.

If Travis hadn't been there, Elena would have cut in and told Dean to stop. Instead, she just gave Sam a silent sympathetic look.

"Sorry I'm late for the dance. Thanks for helping out an old man. I'm a little, uh, shorthanded." Travis said, lifting his right arm that was in a cast.

They all chuckled at his pun.

"So, you track down Montgomery?" he asked, looking between Sam and Dean.

"Yeah, we found him at his home." Sam said, nodding.

"And?" Travis pushed.

"Well, he had a hell of a case of the munchies, topped off with a burger he forgot to cook." Dean said, the remnants of disgust from the sight still in his voice.

"That's him, all right." the older hunter said, nodding as he sat back.

"What's him?" Dean asked.

"Boys, we got a rugaru on our hands." Travis said.

"A rugaru?" Dean asked skeptically.

"Is that made up?" he questioned, looking over at Sam for confirmation.

He looked back at Travis before Sam could answer.

"That sounds made up." He said to the other man.

Elena rolled her eyes and focused on Travis' explanation.

"They're mean little nasty suckers. Rotted teeth, wormy skin, the works." Travis said, conjuring up a wonderful image in Elena's head.

"Well that ain't this guy. I mean, he was wearing a cellphone on his belt." Dean said, shaking his head.

"He'll turn ugly soon enough. They start out human, for all intents and purposes."

"So what? They go through some kind of metamorphosis?" Elena asked, leaning forward with interest.

"Yeah, like a maggot turning into a bullfly." Travis confirmed, nodding at her while looking a bit impressed.

"But most of all… they're hungry." He said.

"Hungry for what?" Dean asked, like he'd rather not know but had to ask.

"At first, for everything, but then… for long pig." Travis said, nodding with a grimace.

Sam made a disgusted noise and sat back, shaking his head. Dean and Elena were confused, having never heard that term.

"Long pig?" Elena asked hesitantly.

"He means human flesh." Sam said.

"Okay… that's gross." She said, putting down her beer and feeling her stomach lurch.

"And that is my word of the day." Dean nodded.

"Hunger grows in till they can't fight it. Till they gotta take themselves a big, juicy chomp, and then it happens." Travis said.

"What happens?" Sam asked.

"They transform completely and fast. One bite's all it takes. Eyes, teeth, skin; all turns. No going back either. They feed once, they're a monster forever. And our man Jack's headed there on a bullet train." Travis said.

"Well, how'd you find this guy if he's a walking, talking human?" Dean questioned.

"Let's just say it runs in his family." The old man said.

"You mean, uh…" Sam trailed off.

"Killed his daddy back in '78. Son of a bitch mangled eight bodies before I put him down. Guy used to be a dentist. Cadilla, trophy wife… little did I know, pregnant trophy wife. She put the boy up for adoption. By the time I found out, he was long gone, lost in the system." Travis said, taking a long drink.

"You mean to tell me **you** couldn't find someone?" Sam asked, raising his eyebrow.

"I'm not sure I wanted to. The idea of hunting down some poor kid… I don't think I'd have the heart. No. I wanted to wait, make damn sure I had the right man. Apparently I do." Travis sighed.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Sam was out looking through books in the car and Elena was watching as Dean and Travis made weapons to kill the rugaru.

"So fire, huh?" Dean asked, quickly assembling one of the small gas cans.

"The only way I found to kill these bastards; deep fry 'em." Travis confirmed.

"Well that's gonna be… horrible. Is that what you did to Jack's dad?" he asked.

"Uh-huh."

Sam walked in at that moment, a bunch of papers in his hand.

"Not wasting any time, are you?" he asked, scoffing at the weapons that they already had made.

"None to waste. The guy hulks out, we won't be finding bodies, just remains." Travis said.

Sam sat next to Elena and brandished the papers.

"What if he doesn't hulk out? I did a little homework. Uh, I've been checking out the lore on rugarus." Sam said.

"What? My thirty years of experience not good enough for you?" Travis asked, staring Sam down.

"What? No. No. I… I… I just wanted to be prepared. I mean, not that you didn't…" Sam stammered, looking embarrassed.

"Sam loves research. He does. He keeps it under his mattress right next to his KY. It's a sickness." Dean said, smirking as he assembled a gas can.

Elena shook her head at his words. Sam scoffed at him and Dean looked over at them.

"It is." He shrugged.

"Look, everything you said checked out, of course, but uh, I I found a couple of interesting stories about people who have this rugaru gene or whatever. See, they start to turn, but they never take the final step." He said, gesturing to the papers.

Dean pulled them out of his hand.

"Really?" he said, looking down at them with interest.

"See, if they never eat human flesh, they don't fully transform." Sam explained.

"So what? Go vegan, stay human?" Dean asked.

"Basically. Or in this case, eat a lot of raw meat, just not…"

"Long pig." Dean nodded.

"Right." Sam agreed.

Dean smiled a bit and Elena looked at Travis, who'd been silent for the whole time.

"Good on you for the due diligence, Sam. But those are fairy tales." He said, getting up to make a cup of coffee.

"Fact is, every rugaru I ever saw or heard of… took that bite." He said from the little kitchenette.

Sam stood while he spoke.

"Okay, well, that doesn't mean Jack will." He said, walking to the center of the room.

Dean stood as well when Sam did, making Elena feel rather small sitting in the middle a few quite tall men.

"So what do we do? Sit and hope and wait for a body count?" Travis scoffed, stirring creamer into the dark liquid.

"No, we talk to him. Explain what's happening. That way he can fight it." Sam offered.

"Fight it?" Travis laughed, shaking his head.

"Are you kidding me? You ever been really hungry?"

Dean looked up, his attention off of the papers as Travis said this.

"I mean, haven't eaten in days, hungry?" he asked.

"Yeah." Dean nodded in a very exaggerated way, sounding like it happened to him all the time.

"Yeah. Right then. So somebody slaps a big, juicy sirloin in front of you, you walking away?" Travis asked with a raised eyebrow.

They all remained silent, not sure of how to counteract that.

"That's what we are to him now, meat on legs. I'm sorry. I'm sure he's a stand-up guy, but it's pure, base instinct. Everything in nature's gotta eat. You think he can stop himself 'cause he's nice?" Travis asked, shaking his head as he sat down again.

"I don't know. But we're not gonna kill him unless he does something to get killed for." Sam said with a competely firm and serious tone.

Dean looked over at Sam as he inhaled deeply and turned to walk out of the room.

"What's up with your brother?" Travis asked, puzzled as the door slammed shut.

"Don't even get me started." Dean said gruffly, staring at the door.

Elena sighed and stood, giving him a look. He shrugged but she rolled her eyes and turned around, following Sam out of the motel room.

"Hey." She said, catching up to Sam by the Impala.

"Dean send you after me? Make sure I'm not meeting up with Ruby?" Sam asked, turning around while rubbing his forehead.

"First of all, what makes you think Dean can 'send' me anywhere? Second of all, why would he send me? For my impressive muscles?" Elena asked, smiling at him.

Sam sighed and smiled slightly as well.

"I know that this Jack guy is probably dangerous but I don't want to kill him because he's got the potential to be a bad guy." He said, leaning against the Impala.

"I understand. You don't have to defend yourself to me." Elena nodded, leaning next to him.

"Yeah you're probably the only one I don't have to defend myself to." He said, pulling at his jacket.

"Sam… I know it may not seem like it right now, but everything will be all right at some point." She assured him.

"Yeah? When?" he challenged her.

"I'm not psychic. But it's scientifically proven that everything that goes down, must come up." She said, gesturing with her hand.

He laughed and reached out, grabbing her hand.

"You got it wrong. It's everything that goes up…" he lifted her hand into the air.

"… must come down." He brought their hands rushing down.

"Oh, is that how it goes? I never paid attention in physics." she shrugged, laughing as she slapped his arm when he laughed at her.

"Well I'm sure Newton is rolling in his grave." Sam chuckled.

"You mean you haven't salted and burned his bones yet?" she asked teasingly.

"Nah, we haven't got around to that yet." Sam said, nudging her slightly.

"Hmm, for shame. For all you know he's haunting some poor old lady yelling, 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction!'" Elena said, sending Sam doubling over in laughter.

"So you did pay attention in physics?" he asked.

"Maybe sometimes." She shrugged, smiling at him, happy that she made him smile.

Unfortunately, his smile dropped when Dean came out with the Impala keys and the weapons bag.

"All right we're gonna go have a little chat with this guy, which, you know, I'm down…" he trailed off, throwing the weapons in the backseat before leaning against the driver's side looking at them.

They both turned to look back at him.

"… but I want to make sure, if push comes, you're gonna shove." Dean said, his voice a little harsh.

"Meaning?" Sam demanded, narrowing his eyes at Dean.

"Well, odds are we're gonna have to burn this guy alive." Dean said.

"This guy has a name and a wife." Sam scoffed.

"Yeah, who we're probably gonna make a widow, okay? I mean, you heard Travis. He's gonna turn. They always turn." Dean said.

Elena sighed and bit her lip. Apparently Dean could not see how much Sam was paralleling this situation with his own life. Especially since Dean informed Sam that he would hunt him if he didn't know him.

"Well, maybe he won't. Maybe he can fight it off." Sam said defensively.

"And mabe he can't, that's all I'm saying." Dean shrugged.

"All right, we'll just have to see then, okay?"

"This is what I mean, Sam. You sure your emotions aren't getting in the way here?" Dean pushed him.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked with a confused look.

"You know, nice dude, but he's got something evil inside. Something in his blood. Maybe you can relate." Dean reminded him.

Maybe Elena underestimated Dean, because he seemed to be aware of exactly what Sam was going through. They were brothers, after all."

Sam looked pissed, his hands clenching into fists.

"You want to know why I've been lying to you, Dean? Because of crap like this." Sam growled, walking around the front of the car at the same time as Dean did.

"Like what?" Dean demanded.

"The way you talk to me, the way you look at me like I'm a freak!" Sam yelled, gesturing wildly.

"I do not." Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"You know, or even worse, like I'm an idiot!" Sam said, walking up to Dean until he was in his face.

"Like I don't know the difference between right and wrong?" Sam shouted, getting it all out of his system, pacing away from Dean back and forth.

When he looked back at Dean, who had a matched pissed expression on his face.

"What?" Sam snapped.

"Do you know the difference, Sam? I mean, you've been kind of strolling the dark road lately." Dean said.

Elena had no idea how or she would break this up, get in the middle before the brothers started throwing punches.

"You have no idea what I'm going through! None!" Sam hissed, glaring at Dean.

"Then enlighten me!" Dean roared.

Elena actually flinched at their raised voices, unsure of how to react to this situation. It seemed like all Sam and Dean did was fight so she wondered how they'd managed to build up a good relationship before Dean went to hell.

"I've got demon blood in me, Dean! This disease pumping through my veins, and I can't ever rip it out or scrub it clean! I'm a whole new level of freak! And I'm just trying to take this... this curse… and make something good out of it! Because I have to!" Sam shouted.

Dean remained silent, taking in the information that Sam threw at him. After a few moments, Dean finally spoke in a calm voice.

"Let's just go talk to the guy." He said.

Sam scoffed and shook his head.

"I mean Jack. Okay?" Dean asked, putting his hands up in surrender.

Elena watched as Sam gave a small nod, but didn't say anything to his brother. He turned to walk to the passenger side.

"You coming, 'Lena?" Dean asked.

It looked as though it was the day for him to give everyone nicknames.

"I think I'll skip out on the cannibalism, thanks." She said, grimacing at the thought.

"Suit yourself." Dean said, climbing into the car.

"Hey." She stopped Sam with a hand on his arm.

She pulled him into a hug, pressing her face into his chest. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her as well.

"Try not to kill your brother, ok?" she asked, pulling away.

He nodded, clenching his jaw.

"And remember, what goes down, must come up." She said, backing away from him with a grin.

He laughed and she felt triumphant as she turned to walk back into the motel room.

* * *

It took all day of her sitting in the motel alternating between reading and watching random television shows, most of them soap operas, unfortunately, for her to get any message from the brothers. Travis had gone out earlier after getting a call from them and she chose to remain in the motel still. So at about six in the evening, she got a text from Sam. When she opened it, she panicked and leapt out of the bed, throwing on her shoes and grabbing the small gun that Dean gave her for protection, shoving it in her waistband before running out of the motel. The text said, **help** along with the address of a home. Elena knew from hearing them talk about it that the house was a few blocks over from the hotel so she chose to just run there as fast as she could.

When she arrived there, she saw nothing out of the ordinary on the outside but she knew that meant nothing. As she ran up to the door, it flew open and a woman came running out.

"Oh God!" she cried, launching into Elena's arms.

"Ma'am, what is it?" Elena asked, holding onto her.

"My husband is a monster!" she wailed.

Elena sighed and pulled away from her.

"Go to the hospital and do not tell anyone about this." she commanded, turning to run into the house and pulling the gun out as she did so.

She heard noises from up the stairs and slowly walked up them, remembering how to shoot a gun from the way that Alaric and Dean taught her. It was firmly gripped in her hand as she rounded the corner. Sam's muffled voice was coming from a room at the end of the hallway. She walked towards it slowly, making sure to remain completely silent. When she peeked into the room, she saw a huge bloodstain by the door but that wasn't what forced her into action. It was Dean crumpled over a glass table with Jack Montgomery, bloodstained face and all, hovering over him. Dean was bleeding out of a wound on his head and the other man was sniffing him with interest.

"Do not hurt him!" she heard Sam yell.

Her insticts kicked in and she slammed the door open. The gun was raised as the monster turned and growled at her. It was as though her body was on autopilot as she strode forward, pulling the trigger over and over again. The monster flew backwards. She knew that it wouldn't kill him but it stunned him for a moment as he staggered to the ground. Then the closet door slammed open and Sam came out, lighting a flamethrower. Jack stumbled to his feet and ran at Sam, but it was too late for him. Elena watched as Sam lit him on fire and the monster fell to the ground, screaming as he burned alive.

She ran to the table and helped Dean, who was started to come out of unconsciousness. As she helped him to a standing position, she looked past the flames to see Sam looking regretful and sad at the outcome.

"Hey Sam." She murmured, reaching out to touch his arm.

He turned to face her with sorrowful eyes.

"Let's go." she said, nodding as she helped Dean out the door.

* * *

They went back to the hotel to pack everything up and then they were on the road. Elena was saddened to learn that Travis had gone after Jack alone and ended up being killed and eaten for his efforts. As they sped down the road, with her curled up in the back, she saw Dean looking at her in the rearview mirror.

"You all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She nodded, wrapping her arms around her torso.

"You know, I was a little awake when you came busting in like Xena. That was badass." He nodded, smirking at her.

"I better not see Xena on my next ID." She said warningly, pointing a finger at him.

He chuckled and shook his head before looking over at Sam, who had a serious look on his face.

"You did the right thing, you know. That guy was a monster, there was no going back." he assured his brother.

Sam simply looked down, not responding.

"Sam, I wanna tell you I'm sorry. I've been kind of hard on you lately."

Sam lifted his head, looking out the window and to Elena, he looked broken and devastated.

"Don't worry about it, Dean." He said softly.

"It's just that your, uh, your psychic thing, it scares the crap out of me." Dean said honestly, staring out the windshield.

"Look, if it's all the same… I'd really rather not talk about it." Sam said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

Dean looked over at him with a little smile playing on his lips.

"Wait a minute. What? You don't want to talk? You?" Dean asked teasingly.

Sam didn't even react with a flicker of a smile at the joke.

"There's nothing more to say. I can't keep explaining myself to you. I can't make you understand." Sam sighed.

"Why don't you try?" Dean asked.

"I can't. Because this thing, this blood, it's not in you the way it's in me. It's just something I got to deal with." Sam said, rubbing his head.

"Not alone." Dean assured him.

Elena simply watched as they conversed.

Sam sighed and looked out the passenger window. After being silent for a few minutes, he looked back at Dean.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter. These powers… it's playing with fire. I'm done with them." He said with an air of finality.

Dean looked over at him.

"I'm done with everything."

"Really?" Dean asked him.

Sam nodded, turning to look out the window again while Dean turned back to the road.

"Well that's a relief. Thank you." Dean said, sounding truly appreciative.

Sam turned and scoffed a little.

"Don't thank me. I'm not doing it for you. Or for the angels or for anybody. This is my choice." He decided, leaning back and staring out the window.

"Well still, it's a good choice." Dean informed him.

The car was silent for a few minutes until Elena leaned forward and put her chin on Sam's shoulder.

"I'll make brownies for you when we get home, if you want." She offered, leaning her head against his.

He let out a short laugh.

"That sounds great." He agreed.

She smiled and patted his arm before leaning back once more.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it. A few things:**

**1. I took some liberties with the storyline. I have no idea where Dean gets the fake ID's from so I made it to where Bobby makes them since he seems to be the main supply guy.**

**2. If you didn't read the information at the top, I suggest going to do that.**

**3. Next chapter is going to have Elena actively participating in a hunt. And by that I mean she becomes the fixation of a monster. If you know what episode is next in the series, you know what I'm talking about.**

**4. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Meowgli, Thera-Rocklynn, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, SweetCheeks94, DrawingMyHeartOut, chiwi, Limetka.111, and Beautiful Lie 5105 for reviewing!**

**Okay just a warning for my Dean/Elena fans (which I hope is all of you), Dean is going to get sort of up to his old tricks this episode. Because it's Dean and he's around beer and women and him and Elena are still dancing around each other and their attraction. But don't worry, it gives us a chance to see jealous!Elena.**

**As with the episode that this plotline belongs to, imagine everything in black and white because it makes it more fun!**

* * *

"The radio around here sucks." Dean complained, switching it off.

Elena sighed and rolled her eyes. Dean had been nonstop complaining ever since they left Sioux Falls for this so-called 'strange case'.

"Come on man." Sam sighed, also tired of Dean's whining.

"Jobs don't get much sweeter than this, you know? Dead vic with a gnawed on neck, body drained of blood, and a witness who swears up and down that it was a vampire." Dean said, sounding pumped up

"No, I - I agree. It's a hell of a case." Sam nodded, reading the case file for it that Bobby provided

"A little more gusto, please." Dean requested.

"I don't get it. How is this different from every other normal vampire case?" Elena asked, leaning forward to cross her arms on the seat between the brothers.

"It's different because…" Dean began.

"It's just...The world is coming to an end. Things are a little complicated, you know?" Sam interrupted him, sounding extremely bothered about it.

"Yeah, well, we can't save the world, not today anyway. But what we can do is chop off some vamps' heads. Come on, man, it's like the good old days, an honest-to-goodness monster hunt. It's about time the Winchesters plus a Gilbert got back to tackling a straightforward, black-and-white case." Dean said, nodding at them.

* * *

When they arrived in the small town with signs everywhere signaling the start of Oktoberfest, they immediately went to a hotel to check into a room. It was the same deal, one room with two double beds paid for with a fake credit card. Elena waited impatiently in a chair that was outside of the motel room, enjoying the fresh air as Dean and Sam insisted on changing. When they came out in black suits, she raised her eyebrow.

"Wow, you two look fancy. I suppose I shouldn't be seen with you so that I don't shatter the fakeness of it all." Elena said, standing up and smiling at them.

"We promised you a good time and we are going to give it to you." Dean said, holding out his arm to her.

She looked at Sam with pleading eyes and he sighed and did the same.

"I don't know what you're talking about Agent Mulder, I always have a good time with you." Elena said, turning to grin at Dean.

"Are you saying that I'm Agent Scully?" Sam asked, scoffing at the thought.

"I would never." Elena said innocently, turning her wide eyes on him and blinking her lashes.

"Actually we're Agents Angus and Young." Dean said, grinning at her.

"You've got to be kidding me? You really don't think there will be any AC/DC fans around here who will know who Angus Young is?" Elena asked with a raised eyebrow as they reached the Impala.

"I'm actually shocked that you know." Dean shrugged, opening the door for her.

"Don't underestimate my knowledge, Angus." Elena said with a roll of her eyes before she climbed into the car.

* * *

As they pulled up to the town square where most of the activity was happening, Elena saw that Dean was barely able to hold back his excitement. She climbed out of the back when Sam opened the door for her and shot him a grin. She felt a bit awkward, walking into the square with polka music playing and weirdly dressed people around them. Dean and Sam walked ahead of her as she shoved her hands in her pockets.

"We still got to see the new Raiders movie." Dean said to Sam, sounding excited about it, though where that came from, Elena wasn't sure.

"Saw it." Sam said easily.

Dean stopped short, causing them to stop as well

"Without me?" Dean asked, incredulous as he turned to his brother.

"You were in hell." Sam shrugged.

"That's no excuse." Dean said, looking around with a stunned look on his face.

"Big pretzel!" he exclaimed when he saw the vendor.

Elena smiled and Sam shook his head at his Dean's childish excitement.

Dean got three pretzels from vendor, handing them off as they stood around.

"Thank you." Dean to vendor.

"Thank you." Sam and Elena at the same time to Dean.

"Guten tag." A blonde dressed in a short black Oktoberfest dress with a white apron tied around her waist.

"Guten tag yourself." Dean with his mouth full, making Elena roll her eyes as both Dean and Sam stared after her.

"Oh Gott sei Dank!" a voice shouted from behind them, causing Elena to jump and see who'd shouted.

A short squat man ran up to them, looking at Elena as if she was his saving grace.

"I got the call and I was so grateful that you decided to join us. Did you really take part in the Oktoberfest in Germany last year?" the man asked, looking up at her with adoring eyes.

"I… I don't…" Elena stammered.

"Yes, she did." Dean said, pushing her forward.

She looked back at him with questioning eyes before the man took her hand in his own clammy one.

"The man who I spoke to, with the very thick southern accent, he told me that you were beautiful. With the gleaming brown hair and the dark brown eyes. Goodness you are just as I imagined! We must get you dressed!" he said, moving to pull her away.

"What the hell is going on? Did you have Bobby call to get me a job?" she hissed to Dean, digging her heels into the ground so that the man could not pull her away.

"We promised you the full hunters experience as well as some fun. Well part of being a hunter is going undercover. You are going undercover. Bobby called it in." Dean said, grinning at her.

She glared at him as the man finally succeeded in pulling her away from them. Her eyes told them that they were going to hear about this later.

* * *

"Sheriff Dietrich?" Sam asked as they approached the man in the uniform.

"Are you the boys from the fed?" he asked, looking them up and down.

"Agents Angus and Young." Dean said proudly, showing off his badge along with Sam.

"We called ahead about your, uh, problem." Sam said, nodding at the man.

"Right. Um...I'll tell you what, why don't we talk this out away from the crowd, huh?" the sheriff said, pulling them away.

The sheriff pulled the sheet back to show off the body as Dean glanced around the sparkling clean morgue.

"Marissa Wright, 26,just up from Lockhard for the ' . Just terrible. It's the last thing is town needs at peak tourist season." Sheriff Dietrich said, looking down at her.

"Definitely the last thing Marissa Wright needed." Sam said with a tight smile.

Dean reached down and turned her head to reveal to perfect puncture marks.

"What the hell?" Dean said, shocked at what he was seeing.

"Yeah, you got me - I mean, this killer's some kind of grade-"A" wacko, right? I mean, some satan-Worshipping, Anne Rice-Reading, gothic, psycho vampire wannabe." The sheriff said, staring down at the body with interest.

"Sheriff, in your report, you mentioned a witness." Sam said.

"Yeah, I wished I didn't." Sheriff Dietrich huffed. "But our witness insisted. That's Ed Brewer. Not exactly what you'd call reliable. You'll find him at the tavern."

* * *

Elena was very unhappy. As she stood behind the bar, hiding mostly, she attempting to tug the short skirt down but that only succeeded in showing off more of her breasts. The heels that she was in were actually quite comfortable but they also allowed more of her legs to be shown off. Her dress was fully white and she was wearing a black apron. The girl who laced her up in the corset like top, Lucy, told her that the more boobs she showed, the more tips she got. So she was laced up extra tight to make them stand out, making it hard for her to breathe.

Her hair was braided into two braids. When she heard two familiar voices approach the bar, she snapped her head around and glared at Dean and Sam.

"Can you handle them?" she asked the blonde that Dean was gawking at earlier.

Her name was Jamie and she was actually quite nice.

"Of course. Why do you not like the look of them?" Jamie asked, gazing at Dean interestedly.

"The last time I served guys in suits, I almost took out two restraining orders." Elena lied, grabbing two full glasses of beer and walking out from behind the bar.

When she got back, she stood a little ways away so that she could hear what Dean and Sam, mostly Dean, were saying.

"I never forget a pretty… everything." He said, grinning at Jamie.

Elena rolled her eyes and walked off to collect empty glasses so as to refill them. When she got back, Dean and Sam had luckily wandered off to question someone elsewhere in the tavern.

"Thanks." She sighed to Jamie, filling up three of the glasses.

"No problem. But they were actually pretty nice." Jamie shrugged, arranging napkins on the bar.

"I'm sure they were. But they're still suits and they're still assholes." Elena said, walking off once more.

* * *

"I told the cops everything I saw. No one believes me. Why should you be any different?" Ed Brewer demanded of Dean and Sam.

"Believe me, Mr. Brewer, we're different." Dean said.

"I spoke the God's honest truth. And now, I'm the town's joke." The skittish man said, taking a long gulp of his own drink.

"Marissa Wright's murder is no joke to us. And we want to hear everything, no matter how strange it may seem." Sam assured him.

"We have a lot of experience with strange." Dean said, nodding at the man.

"It was just after midnight. I just left here and like I do every night, I cut through the park on the way home. At first, I thought it was a couple kissing. But she was... struggling too much. And this man, he was - well, he was biting her neck." Ed said, wringing his hands together.

"Can you describe her assailant?" Sam asked

"Oh, he was a vampire." Ed said, sounding absolutely sure of himself for the first time.

"Okay, right. And by that, you mean…?" Dean asked.

"You know, a vampire." Ed said, baring his teeth to them.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. So, he looked like…" Dean pushed him, leaning forward.

"He looked like a vampire, you know, with the fangs and the slicked-Back hair and the fancy cape and the little medallion thingy on the ribbon." The man said, gesturing to his hair.

"You mean like a dracula?" Dean asked skeptically.

"Exactly. Like a dracula. Right down to the accent." Ed nodded.

"The accent?" Sam questioned

"Yep."

"What did he say?" Dean asked

"You know, something like.. Stay away, mortal! The night is mine! You do believe me, don't you?" Ed asked.

* * *

"They must be here following up on that murdered woman." Jamie said softly to Elena and Lucy, who were standing on either side of her drying glasses that had just been washed.

They were all watching Sam and Dean ask Ed Brewer questions. Elena was more giving them evil looks than the other two.

"Crazy Ed and vampire story." Lucy commented, rolling her eyes.

"He might be weird, but he's not crazy." Jamie defended the man who looked plenty nervous from here.

"Look, you're just saying that 'cause the guy has a crush on you and he tips you in $20s." Lucy said.

"Wow, tell me your secret." Elena said, grinning at her before walking off to help a man who was wildly gesturing for another beer.

* * *

"So, what do you think? Goth, psycho vampire wannabe, right?" Dean asked as him and Sam slid into their own booth.

"Definitely not our kind of case." Sam confirmed, sighing as he took out the case file to cross it off.

"Agreed. But who cares? Room's paid for, and it's oktoberfest. Come on, brother. Beer and bar wenches!" Dean exclaimed, slamming his hand on the table excitedly.

"Pretty sure women today don't react well to the whole 'wench' thing, Dean." Sam said, laughing at his brother.

"Hey, bar wench, will thou fetchest me a beer?" Dean asked as a brunette with long bronze legs and a short black dress on walked by.

He winked triumphantly at Sam as the brunette stopped short and turned. His smirk fell when he saw that the long bronze legs belonged to Elena. She walked back to him and leaned in, putting her arm around his shoulders. He was almost distracted beyond hearing by her breasts that were spilling out of her dress.

"Call me a bar wench one more time, Dean Winchester, and I'll kick your ass." She whispered to where only he could hear.

"Duly noted." He nodded, unable to think clearly with her that close to him and the smell of her raspberry vanilla shampoo washing over him.

"Good boy." She murmured, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek to keep up appearances.

She stood up and waved at Sam, who nodded at her.

"Your beers will be here soon, gentlemen." She said with a polite smile, turning to walk away.

"Dude, what'd she say to you?" Sam asked.

"Nothing." Dean said instantly, chills running through his body and his cheek incredibly warm and tingling where she kissed him.

"She threatened to kick your ass, didn't she?" Sam said, grinning teasingly.

A few moments later, Jamie came up with a large beer for him.

"What'll you have?" she turned to ask Sam.

"Oh, he doesn't drink. He's a christian scientist. Doesn't even take aspirin. He's a real drag on stakeouts." Dean said, grinning up at the blonde, getting his confidence back.

"You're funny." Jamie said, laughing lightly.

"I'm a lot more than that. I'd love to get a chance to show you the rest. What time you get off?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Ha ha. Like I said, funny." Jamie said, laughing again before walking off.

When she got to the counter, Elena leaned over.

"Does the other suit want a beer too?" she asked, holding one out.

"No, apparently he's Christian Scientist." Jamie said with a grin.

Elena narrowed her eyes at Dean, who was so obviously flirting with Jamie. For some reason, it made her angry. She slid out from behind the bar and began walking towards their table.

"Man, it is time to right some wrongs." She heard Dean say, tapping his hands on the table excitedly.

"Come again?" Sam choked out, staring at him.

His eyes lifted to see Elena walking towards the table and he looked back at Dean with wide eyes, trying to make a subtle gesture to get his brother to stop talking.

"Look at me. I came back from the furnace without any of my old scars, right? You know, bullet wounds, knife cuts, none of the off angled fingers from all the breaks. I mean, my hide is as smooth as a baby's bottom. Which leads me to conclude, sadly... that my virginity is intact." Dean said with a grin, nodding suggestively at Sam.

Elena stopped short just behind Dean, startled by the topic of conversation.

"What?" Sam said, raising an eyebrow.

"I have been re-hymenated." Dean said proudly, raising his eyebrow.

Elena couldn't see his face, but she knew he was smirking and it annoyed the hell out of her.

"Please. Dean, maybe angels can pull you out of hell, but no one could do that." Sam scoffed, shaking his head as he looked past him at Elena sympathetically.

That also annoyed her, why was he feeling pity for her?

"Brother, I have been re-hymenated. And the Dude will not abide." Dean nodded, leaning back in the booth.

Elena felt her cheeks flushing with color as she continued on her path and slammed the glass down in front of Sam.

"Here's your beer." She said, turning to walk away.

"Hey, Elena. Could you do me a favor?" Dean asked her, stopping her by grabbing his hand.

She looked down at him to see his eyes wide and looking a little puppy dog like.

"What?" she sighed, relaxing her shoulders slightly.

"You're working with Jamie. Can you put a good word in for me?" Dean asked, smiling up at her.

Elena twisted her wrist out of his grip.

"Your booty calls are your own to set up, Dean Winchester." She hissed, turning to walk away, steam practically coming out of her ears.

* * *

When Elena made it back to the motel, Lucy luckily giving her a ride, she narrowed her eyes dangerously at the Impala.

"We should have a girls night tomorrow night." Lucy suggested, smiling over at her.

Elena looked over at her, ready to turn her down. But then again she really didn't want to have to listen to Dean going on and on about losing his virginity to Jamie.

"Sounds great. We'll leave from work?" Elena asked.

"Sounds great." Lucy echoed, smiling at her.

* * *

When she walked into the room, she saw Sam snoozing on the couch and Dean sitting on the bed reading over the case file.

"Hey, how was work, bar… lady?" he asked, checking himself before he called her a wench again.

"Fine." She said simply, pulling her hair out of the braids as she kicked off the heels.

Then she grabbed her pajamas and turned to walk into the bathroom. When she came back, Dean hadn't moved. She crossed to the other bed and pulled back the covers with force, sending them flying to the edge of the bed.

"Hey, about earlier…" Dean began softly.

"Don't need to talk about it." she cut him off quietly so as not to wake Sam up, pulling her phone out as it needed the battery charged.

"I just wanted to apologize for making you uncomfortable. I know that you're probably too young to be all right with being a guy's wingwoman." Dean said, obviously joking.

She turned to glare at him as she slid into the bed.

"Seriously?" she hissed, not giving him a chance as she turned over and pulled the covers up and over her.

"What?" he said, confused at her reaction.

She rolled her eyes and sat up, turning to look at him.

"We are hunting something! I am in a freaking uncomfortable dress with everything of mine out there for very perverted men to admire and shit!" she growled, glaring at him.

"Who was looking at you?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes at the thought of men admiring her.

"It doesn't matter! My name is…" she reached towards her purse and yanked out her wallet, digging the fake ID out.

"… Charity Case! Charity? Really? Is it your life's goal to give me stripper names? Maybe next time you should just throw all inhibition out the window and put Lola Sizzle or Sapphire Velvet on my ID!" she snapped quietly, throwing the ID onto the bedside table and flopping back onto the bed.

"Hey come on, I thought it was funny." Dean said, smiling at the thought.

"Well it's not!" she hissed, refusing to look at him again.

"'Lena, I'm sorry." He said, leaning forward off the bed.

It took a moment but she finally sat up and turned to look at him. Unfortunately for him, her gaze hadn't softened at all at his apology. If anything, it was even icier than before.

"We are on a damn hunt, Dean . Do you think you could handle keep your dick in your pants while we're here?" she growled, pulling the covers over her head this time as she fell back onto the pillow.

Meanwhile, Dean was left speechless and a no longer asleep Sam was grinning at the lover's spat he'd just heard. He just wondered how long it would take his clueless older brother to figure out that Elena wasn't mad about being given the job in the tavern or the ridiculous name on her ID, but that she was so angry because she was so very jealous.

* * *

Elena brought three cups of coffee to the table in the tavern as Dean and Sam talked to the latest witness to a strange crime, a teenage girl whose boyfriend was shredded by an animal. That day, Elena was in the white dress with the black apron and corset type thing. Her hair was in curly low pigtails with a black headband.

"And then it just… it just tore Rick into little pieces." Anna-Marie said, dabbing at her eyes as tears leaked from them.

"Ma'am, we understand how hard this is, but can you describe the creature?" Dean questioned, his eyes flashing up to Elena as she set the cups on the table.

"Oh. It was a werewolf." She said, nodding at them as she sipped at her coffee.

"A werewolf? You're sure?" Sam asked, his eyebrow raised slightly.

Elena stood a little bit to the side, wanting to hear what the girl said.

"Oh, yeah. With the furry face and the black nose and the claws and the torn-up pants and shirt, like from the old movies." Anna-Marie informed them, her eyes wide as she described the thing.

"Um, well..." Sam said, trailing off.

"Okay, so... thank you for your time." Dean said.

The girl nodded and stood to wander out. As she had nothing left to listen to, Elena turned to walk off, joining Jamie and Lucy at the bar.

"I can't join, Luce. I'm meeting Agent Angus over there for drinks tonight when I get off." Jamie said, smiling at her friend.

"Oh, well I suppose that we will just have to make do without you." Lucy said, smiling at Elena.

"Yeah definitely." Elena nodded, smiling back at the girl though something in the back of her mind told her that something definitely wasn't right.

* * *

When their shift ended, thankfully without any incidents, Elena went outside to wait on Lucy, who told her that she wanted to change clothes. Elena cursed aloud when she got outside. If only she'd thought to bring a change of clothes so that she wouldn't have to wear the short, revealing dress. When she found Jamie waiting out there, she checked her phone's clock to see that Dean was over fifteen minutes late.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon." Elena said as she walked up to her.

"Hmm… it's about to be G-Man's loss." Jamie said with a wry grin.

"Good evening." A thickly accented voice said from behind them.

They turned to see Dracula literally standing there, cape drawn up to cover his face dramatically and everything.

"I have watched you from afar. My passion knows no bounds!" he said, dropping the cloak to reveal a dangerously pale face and fangs poking out of his mouth.

Elena and Jamie took off running together before he could finish his thought. Jamie fumbled in her purse as they ran. Finally she stopped and turned around, seizing something in her purse. Elena stopped as well, demanding what she was doing as the Dracula monster drew closer.

"You are the reincarnation of my beloved! And I must have you…" he said, spreading out his arms as he drew closer.

Jamie lifted her hand out of her purse and sprayed her pepper spray directly into his eyes.

"Mary, son of a…" he cursed, bending over as he attempted to clear his eyes and they turned to run.

Elena caught sight of Dean walking towards them at the end of the street and sighed with relief.

"Elena! Jamie!" Dean yelled as they ran straight at him.

They stumbled to a stop when they reached him, breathing heavily. Dracula appeared in front of them, looking a little worse for wear as he bent over inhaling deeply.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean exclaimed, yanking them backwards.

"You should not use such language in the presence of my bride." The Dracula monster said, drawing himself up to full height.

"Okay." Dean shrugged, lunging forward and punching him.

They began to fight around the street as Elena and Jamie watched. Elena felt the urge to jump in and rip the monster to shreds but she controlled herself carefully.

"Elena, get Jamie out of here!" Dean shouted.

"You have no choice in the matter, Mr. Harker, Mina is mine!" the monster said in his thick accent as Elena and Jamie backed away from them.

He leaned into try to bite Dean and Elena lunged forward instead of running off. Luckily, she heard a disgusting ripping noise and then the creature was fleeing into the night. Dean stood there staring after the monster, holding a piece of flesh in his hand.

* * *

"Hey, you guys all right?" Sam asked as he approached them once he entered the tavern.

Elena and Jamie were seated on one side of the bar and Dean on the other.

"Yeah, I think so. And I think I know what's going on." Dean said, setting a towel with the flesh in it on the table.

Elena and Jamie both recoiled, staring at it with disgust.

"Yeah?" Sam asked, unfolding the towel.

"Part of it, at least." Dean shrugged.

"Uh, the ear part?" Sam asked, grimacing at what he saw.

"Ripped it off of Dracula's head. Touch it. Feel familiar to you?" Dean asked, watching as Sam reached out to handle the thing.

"Oh man." Sam breathed, sitting in the booth next to him.

"The skin of a shapeshift. Just like St. Louis and Milkaukee. Of course this one's all holding buckets of crazy. Oh, and, uh…" he pulled out the medallion that he nabbed as well.

"I pulled this off during the fight. Look at the label on the ribbon." Dean said, handing it to Sam.

"It's a costume rental." He scoffed.

"All three monsters – the dracula, wolf man, and the mummy – all the same critter. Which means we need to catch this freak before he 'creature from the black lagoon's' somebody." Dean said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"So you guys are like Mulder and Scully or something, and the X-Files are real?" Jamie asked, glancing between all of them.

"No, the X-Files is a tv show. This is real." Dean scoffed, smiling at her afterwards.

"Oh." Jamie said, sitting back again.

"Okay, so, the stagecraft, the costuming…" Sam trailed off.

"It's like he's trying to reenact his favorite monster movie moments, right down to the bloody murders." Dean said.

"Wait a second, who the hell is Mina?" Jamie asked.

"Mina?" Sam questioned.

"Yeah, that's what he called Jamie. And he called me Mr. Harker." Dean said, nodding at his brother.

"Jonathan Harker? They're characters from the movies and the novels. Mina, Dracula's intended bride, Harker, the fiance. He's fixating on you. Like he sees you as his bride." Sam explained to Jamie.

"Wow. Lucky me." she breathed, staring down at the table.

"But to fixate on you, my guess is that the shifter has to have seen you before or been around you." Sam said.

"Jamie, has anybody strange come to town, somebody that has taken specific notice of you?" Dean asked, leaning forward to focus on Jamie, not that it was much of a surprise.

"I don't know, Dean. It's Oktoberfest. I'm a bartender. There's lots of people." Jamie said, shaking her head.

"You said something about Ed Brewer." Elena reminded her.

"Oh, yeah." She breathed, remembering his fascination with her.

"He moved here about a month ago. Lucy swears he has a crush on me. He comes in almost every night. But, you know, I don't think he's the type of guy…" Jamie said.

"Where does Ed live?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. But he works at the old movie theater. I think he's a projectionist there." Jamie said.

"Take care of Mina?" Sam asked, standing up.

"Yep." Dean agreed, much to Elena's chagrin.

* * *

After a while of sitting there awkwardly while Jamie asked questions like, 'were they really the FBI'. Suddenly the lights in the bar all switched on.

"Holy crap!" Lucy exclaimed, seeing them sitting there.

"Oh my God! I'm sorry I forgot to meet you." Elena said, just remembering that they were supposed to have girl's night.

"It's all right." Lucy said, smiling at her as she walked to the table and sat next to her.

She poured them all a drink as Jamie told her a little bit about what happened while leaving out the supernatural aspects of it.

"It was really, really something." Jamie said sleepily.

"I hope you're ok." Lucy said, reaching out and touching her hand before turning to smile at Elena.

Surprisingly enough, Elena felt herself growing sleep all of the sudden as well.

"Jamie? Elena?" Dean questioned.

"So, Dean, are you like, a black belt or what?" Lucy asked, leaning forward with a grin.

Dean looked a little woozy as she spoke.

"Well, I guess they train you to fight at the academy or whatever." She shrugged.

Dean shot across the table and punched Lucy, throwing her out of the booth. Then he attempted to get a sleepy Elena and Jamie out of the tavern.

"It's you, isn't it?" he asked as they all staggered.

Lucy pushed her jaw back into place and looked to smile at him. He launched out to kick her and stumbles even more.

"Oh, damn it! What did you put in the drinks?" he demanded as Elena and Jamie collapsed on the ground and curled up.

"And… scene." They heard Lucy mutter before they all slipped into darkness.

* * *

Dean slowly stirred, feeling immediately that he was tied up. Luckily, the monster hadn't discovered his gun that was still stuck in the back of his pants. If only he could get to it. He caught sight of a portrait of a woman that looked remarkably like Lucy.

"She is beautiful, no? Bride number three from the first film." Dracula said as he slid out of the shadows and crossed to the painting.

"She never got the acclaim that she deservd. Which is why I chose her shape, her form to move among the mortals unnoticed, to listen to the cricket songs of the living. That is when I discovered my bride had been reborn in this century." The monster said fondly, turning to Dean and walking to him.

"I can't get over what a pumpkin pie eyed crazy son of a bitch you really are. You're not Dracula, you get that right? Or even if you think you are Dracula, what the hell's up with the mummy?" Dean demanded.

The monster reared back and punched Dean in the face.

"I am all monsters!" he shouted in that ridiculous accent.

"Life ain't a movie, you sorry sack of…" Dean was cut off by yet another punch to the face.

Then the monster began pacing.

"Life is small. Meager messy the movies are grand, simple, elegant. I have chose elegance!" he said, flinging his cape around.

"You think elegance is really the word for what you did to Marissa or Rick Deacon or any of the others?" Dean demanded, glaring at him.

"But of course. It is a monster movie, after all." Dracula said with a maniacal grin.

"You do realize what happens at the end of every monster movie?" Dean reminded him, spitting out the words.

"Ah, but this movie is mine. And in it, the monster wins. The monster gets the girl. And the hero, he's… electrocuted." Dracula crossed to a large lever that connected to whatever Dean was tied to.

"And tonight, Jonathan Harker, you will be my hero." He said.

The doorbell suddenly rang and Dean looked up, confused.

"Wait wait wait wait." The monster said, chuckling. "Please excuse me."

He walked to the door and opened it, revealing a pizza delivery guy.

"Good evening." Dracula said, bowing his head.

"Uh… pizza delivery." The kid said, looking at him like he was a freak.

"Ah, you've brought a repaast. Excellent. Continue to be of such service and your life will be spared." Dracula said dramatically.

"Uh huh. That'll be $15.50." he said, handing the pizza to him.

"Tell me… yeah? Is there… garlic… on this pizza?" the monster asked nervously.

Dean rolled his eyes, glancing around for a way to get out of that ridiculous situation.

"I don't know. Did you order garlic?" the kid asked, dumbstruck by the monster.

"No!" Dracula said, recoiling in horror.

"Then no. Listen, mister, I got four other deliveries to make. You want to just pay me the money so I can go?" he asked impatiently.

"Of course, yes, but I have a coupon." Dracula said, holding out the slip of paper.

* * *

When Dracula disappeared after setting up an elaborate meal on the dining room table, far too fancy for delivery pizza, Dean began to try to struggle his way out of his binds. Dracula ended up appearing back in the room, looking pleased as he watched the double doors that led out of the room.

"My Mina will be coming soon and she will see the sacrifice I make for her. Then we shall dine and she will give herself to me as my bride." He said, readying himself.

"Jamie isn't going to do anything so disgusting with a sick bastard like you." Dean spat.

"Hush, Harker! I will not allow you to sully this moment with your poison laced words!" Dracula said, holding up his hand.

The doors slowly opened and Dean turned, expecting the pale blonde to walk through the doors. He was shocked when, instead, Elena walked through with a furious expression on her face. Her hair was out of the pigtails and falling in soft curls down her back. The white dress that she'd changed into fell around her like a perfect waterfall of fabric, giving her skin a soft glow. In other words, she looked beautiful.

"Elena?" he questioned, his voice full of shock.

"Hey Dean. I think you were wrong about his choice of Mina's." She said, striding into the room while glaring at Dracula.

"My lovely bride. You are as beautiful as you have ever been." Dracula sighed, taking her hand and kissing it.

"I'm not your bride." She snapped, wrenching her hand out of his grip.

"But you are meant to give yourself to me tonight. But first I shall kill your fiance and we shall dine on this wonderful modern meal." He said, gesturing to the table.

Elena stared at him before looking up at Dean.

"But I do not love you." she said, her voice slipping into a dramatic tone, surprising Dean.

"Love will come, dear Mina." He said, reaching forward to stroke her cheek.

"No, I love… erm… Jonathan." She said, looking up at Dean with a longing look.

"Play along." She mouthed.

"Yeah… I love Mina too." Dean said, glancing around as he felt ridiculous.

"You cannot tear us apart. I forbid it." Elena said, crossing to Dean and reaching out to stroke his face.

She was suddenly yanked back into the monster's chest and she visibly shuddered, looking up at Dean with wide eyes as he struggled against the binds.

"You are mine." The monster hissed into her ear.

She turned in his arms to look up at his impossibly pale face.

"At least grant to me one last goodbye with this man." she said pleadingly, her voice overdramatic and breathy.

"I cannot resist you, my dear Mina. Your wish is my command." He said, releasing her and backing away as she turned back to Dean.

Elena walked up and got very close to him.

"Keep playing along, okay?" she whispered.

He nodded, his eyes wide as she leaned in close, pressing her body to his as her lips went to his ear.

"Is your gun still in your waistband?" she whispered, acting as though she was whispering something loving to him.

"Yes." He murmured back, inhaling deeply her beautiful scent.

Elena withdrew and gave him a warning gaze before she leaned in.

"I apologize, but this is necessary." She murmured as her lips were mere inches from his.

Electricity crackled through their bodies as he leaned forward and their lips melded together. Elena gasped into the kiss and her hands went to his hips, pushing herself forward and wrapping her arms around his back. When his mouth opened and his tongue swept across her bottom lip, it felt as though her whole body had erupted into flames. She allowed him entrance into her mouth and they both moaned at the closer contact that they had because of it.

She almost forgot that she was kissing him to get the gun. Finally she remembered and reached in his waistband to retrieve it. Their kiss continued even after she had it gripped firmly in her hand because neither wanted it to stop.

"Enough!" Dracula said, yanking her back so roughly that she fell onto the floor.

Luckily this gave her a way to hide the gun in her skirt, looking up at him with fear as he loomed over her. At that moment the door slammed open and Sam ran in.

"You will never be Van Helsing!" the monster shouted, running forward and grabbing Sam, throwing him through a wall with bricks crumbling around him.

"And you, Harker…" he said, turning his attention on Dean as he stomped to him.

"… you will die." He said, reaching towards Dean's throat with the intention of throttling him.

"How 'bout now you shut the hell up?" Dean growled as his hand wrapped around his throat.

"Oh darling." Elena said in an ethereal voice, causing both Dean and the monster to turn and look at her.

She raised the gun and fired three times, hitting him each time.

"Silver?" the monster gasped, stumbling sideways.

He looked up at Elena with shock.

"It was beauty that killed the beast." He sighed before falling to his knees and collapsing to the ground on his knees.

"No Mina, do not weep. Perhaps this is how the movie should end." He said before falling forward onto his chest.

Elena sighed and dropped the gun, looking up at Dean, who was staring at her with an unknown look in his eyes. Her eyes drifted to Sam standing up out of the rubble and she nodded, turning back to Dean to untie him. When he was undone, she backed away and allowed him to step down.

"Good shot." He commented.

"Learned from the best." She said with a smile, half talking about Alaric and half talking about him.

"I don't know how I didn't guess that you were Mina. You have her hair and everything." Sam said, gesturing to Elena.

"It's all right, Sam. Everything worked out in the end." She nodded at him, sighing dramatically as she kept up the movie spirit.

"All we gotta get out of here before we all turn into a bunch of weeping saps." Dean said gruffly, marching for the door.

Elena and Sam followed him but Elena turned first, looking upon the room once more.

"As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me! I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again1 No, nor any of my folk! If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill! As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" She announced dramatically, spreading her arms wide as she quoted the famous line from 'Gone With the Wind'.

Sam and Dean came back in, grabbing her arms and whirling her around as they walked her outside.

"Do you want to change before walking through the streets in a damned wedding dress?" Dean offered her.

"The monster burned my bar wench dress. He said that it was too suggestive and I should leave such things for him to see, not that damned Harker." She said, turning to smile at him as she shivered against the cool night air.

"Hmm." Dean said, smiling slightly before sliding off his jacket and placing it over her shoulders.

She smiled up at him as they walked to the Impala with Elena between the brothers, her white dress standing out in the darkness.

* * *

When they arrived back at the hotel, Elena begged with the brothers to stay in the town that night and for them to leave in the morning so that they could all get some rest. They agreed after she widened her eyes and let her lower lip tremble for a surprisingly long time. It took a while to get her out of the dress, though. Not because it was a difficult dress to get off of her, but because she said, even though it was a monster who gave it to her, the dress was beautiful. Sam rolled his eyes and collapsed onto the couch, falling asleep quickly. Elena stopped pacing and swishing the dress around as Dean wrote down the details of the hunt in the journal and sat on her bed, spreading the dress around her carefully and falling back on the pillows, her smooth chocolate colored tresses fanned out perfectly.

When Dean looked over at her, his jaw dropped slightly. With her eyes closed for a moment and her lips slightly parted along with the effect of her silky hair, flushed skin, and the dress, she looked unworldly and radiant. Her eyes fluttered open as if she could feel his gaze on her. Their eyes met and, without planning it, both of their minds went back to the kiss they shared in the monster's home. As dark brown stared into striking green, unspoken communication passed between them and both of them understood in that moment.

That kiss hadn't been simply for the benefit of distracting the monster from Elena trying to retrive the gun. She could have done that while whispering in his ear. No both of them wanted… needed… for it to happen. With this realization, Elena was off of the bed and slipping out of the door within moments. Dean stared after her for moment as her silky dress disappeared out of the door. Then he slowly put the journal aside and he walked out the door, seeing her standing in the moonlight with her arms wrapped around her body. She looked over at him and goosebumps that had nothing to do with the chilly air erupted on her skin at his gaze. As he walked over to her slowly, her breathing sped up.

She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could he tangled his hand in her hair and brought her mouth up to his. If she thought the first kiss had been perfect, that put this kiss to shame. Because there was nothing that could compare to Dean having his hands actually untied for this kiss. One hand remained wound in her hair while the other snaked around her back to rest on the small of her spine and pull her closer to him. Her hands clutched as his shoulders to keep her close to him as their chests pressed together and their lips moved in sync. There was one word that Elena could think of to describe this kiss. Consuming.

* * *

**Author's Note: I know! I used Damon's word to describe it but I couldn't help it! Just because it's not with Damon doesn't mean that Dean can't consume her! I hope you liked it. A few things:**

**1. I hope Dean wasn't too douche-y in this chapter with Jamie. I just really wanted to write jealous!Elena**

**2. I hope that their kisses weren't bad since many of you (you know who you are) were dying for them to kiss.**

**3. After getting a feel for what people want, I am officially deciding to take the backstory of Elena's abilities slowly and dropping hints as I go along. But not for too long so that the suspense doesn't get annoying.**

**4. REVIEW PLEASE!**

**5. Elena's white dress is on my profile.**

**6. The man earlier in the chapter said 'Oh my God!' in German**

**7. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark Alana, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, thehoodedface, Krissie, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, Meowgli, AxAxD, louiseeMont, arizonagirl181, Limetka.111, slayerdiaries, SweetCheeks94, cdsnow, neontreeslover, Beautiful Lie 5105, chiwi and the guest all for reviewing! I appreciate it so much!**

**To thehoodedface, I don't want to ignore your review. I loved it and thank you so much.**

**READ THIS! If any of you have read my previous stories, you know that I get very excited when we reach 100 reviews. So there's something special that I do. If anyone that has a scene between any characters that they want to see, let me know by reviewing this chapter and this chapter only. I will work as hard as I can to work it into the story. If you want, you can suggest things that you would like to change from the Supernatural plot since that's what I'm following, but if it doesn't fit into the plan that I already sort of have, I'll let you know so that you can suggest something else. Please do this because I love to show appreciation for my readers and reviewers.**

**For this chapter, Elena is going to be a little OOC but only because she has no idea what is going on for the first time and she is actually scared so don't get mad if she seems a little cold or bitchy. She'll redeem herself, I promise.**

* * *

Elena let out a sharp breath as he slipped away from her. His eyes were staring deep into hers and his arms were still wrapped around her, enveloping her in his warmth.

"We should go back inside." he said roughly.

"Yeah." She breathed, not moving at all to disentagle herself from his arms.

When slowly backed away, she felt disappointment and cold air hit her like a brick. When his hand slid down her arm and laced with her fingers, she smiled without realizing that her face lit up when he took her hand. He turned to walk back to the motel room, her trailing behind him with her dress blowing in the slight breeze. When they got inside the warm room, Dean checked to make sure that Sam was asleep before turning to her. Elena's big brown eyes stared up at him, her lip caught between her teeth as she worried at it. He reached down and stroked her cheek softly. Her raspy voice broke the silence.

"Can you help me undo the dress?" she whispered, gesturing to the complicated back that she could barely lace up herself before.

He nodded and pulled her towards the bathroom, turning it on and shutting the door quietly. She turned and pulled her long hair over her shoulder as she held up the dress in anticipation for it to become looser. They both remained completely quiet as if by breaking the silence, they would shatter the spell that they'd managed to fall under from the moment their eyes met when she was lying on the bed. When he got closer to the top, the dress began to fall open and his hands ghosted over her skin, causing her to develop warm shivers.

When he found the lace that was underneath the dress, he stopped out of surprise. Elena's cheeks flooded with color and she peeked at him over her shoulder.

"Dracula was very thorough." She breathed, her voice still very quiet.

His hand slid into the dress and brushed over the back of the lacy white bra that she was wearing underneath. She sighed at his touched and leaned back into him unconsciously. It seemed that, once they had that first kiss in the monster's lair, all of their previously unspoken boundaries had come crumbling down and neither of them minded at all. His hand pulled away and her eyes opened where she hadn't realized that they'd closed.

"I'll go get your clothes." He murmured in her ear, stroking her shoulder with his hand before turning to walk out of the bathroom.

He came back in with her little black backpack that she stuffed her clothes into before they left Sioux Falls. She turned to thank him while still holding the dress up so that it wouldn't fall. They stared at each other for a moment, neither of them speaking. Then he turned away and walked out of the bathroom to give her privacy. When she changed out of the dress and into her own sweatpants and long sleeved Mystic Falls high school t-shirt, she looked in the mirror to see that her face was lit up with a red blush, her lips were slightly swollen, and her eyes were wide yet happy. She reached up to touch her lips where she could almost still feel his lips on hers. When she was done inspecting herself, she turned to the dress and folded it over her arm, throwing the matching bra and underwear in the trash and opening the door as she turned off the light to the bathroom. She started when she walked out to see Dean leaning against the wall beside it with his hands in his pockets.

He reached out and took the dress from her hands and laid it across the table before turning back to her.

"Are you tired?" he whispered, his face indescernible in the dark.

She shook her head while pressing her lips together, telling the truth, as she was one hundred percent not tired. He reached out his hand and she slid hers into it easily. When he pulled her out of the door, he started towards the Impala. She stopped short when they got to the edge of the sidewalk and he looked back at her quizzically. Elena looked down at her bare feet and he sighed, shaking his head. He walked back to her and let go of her hand.

"Jump on my back." he murmured softly, facing away from her.

She did so hesitantly, feeling rather strange and childish. But when he grinned at her over his shoulder, she giggled and wrapped her arms loosely around his neck. Dean tromped to the Impala, holding onto her legs that were curled around his hips as he did so. When they arrived at the car, he turned so that she could slide back onto the hood. Then she watched as he pulled out the keys and walked to the trunk. He disappeared behind it and she wondered what he was digging for. When he came back, she smiled when she saw the blanket in his hands. He shook it out and wrapped it around her shoulders as she leaned forward. Then he climbed up onto the hood with her and they sat side by side.

"You know, I used to feel so proud of myself in Mystic Falls when I would fight back against the people who were always trying to hurt me. Now, when I fight back, shooting those monsters, I don't feel pride. I… I don't feel much of anything. It's like it's normal and there's no real reason to dwell on it." she said, looking down at her hands.

He looked over at her, his eyes understanding.

"You should be proud of yourself. I do not know a single eighteen-year-old girl that can be so calm and collected in these situations. I haven't seen you panic yet." Dean said, nodding at her.

Elena sighed, looking out at the parking lot. That's because he wasn't awake for the one time that she had panicked. He was bleeding out on the floor and she was screaming for an angel to come help.

"Are you ever proud of yourself?" she asked, looking back at him.

"Nah. This is my job. Has been my entire life. There's no reason to be proud. It's just what I do." Dean shrugged, looking up at the night sky.

Elena did the same, noticing all of the stars.

"Do you ever look up and hope that those you love, the ones who are gone, are looking down on you?" she asked, staring at the twinkling lights and the (ironically enough, considering the case they were just on) full moon.

Dean scoffed.

"I hope to God that they aren't." he said.

Elena took her gaze away from them to see that he was staring at the ground.

"Why not? You don't think they'd like what they see?" Elena asked.

He shrugged noncommittaly but she knew that she'd hit it right on the mark.

"Dean, my parents were hunters. Not in the same way you were. But my dad had this closet full of weapons and stuff to kill vampires. They wouldn't go looking for them but if any showed up in Mystic Falls, he would take care of him. Do you know how many times I was so worried over whether he was looking down on me while I was dancing with a vampire at my school dance with at least three other vampires surrounding me that were some of the closest people to me?" she said, looking at him though he wouldn't look at her.

"You can't live your life concerned about what people who are long gone are thinking about you. You'll go insane." She said, reaching out and turning his face towards her.

He looked over at her with a strange look on his face.

"What are you talking about? Haven't you noticed yet? Us Winchesters are already insane." He said.

A smile bloomed on her face and he couldn't help but smile back.

"So, tell me about you as a teenager." She said, wanting to get on a happier subject.

He let out a short laugh and shook his head.

"I… I was a jackass. I really was. I'm surprised my dad put up with me. I loved hunting and I hated going to school. But I had to keep an eye on Sammy so… I was a little bit of a ladies man." he said, looking at her as if expecting a negative response from her.

"No? You?" she questioned with a grin, her eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. Yeah I was." he nodded, looking out at the parking lot and then back at her.

She let out a laugh and shook her head.

"What about you? I already know you were a cheerleader, which is just awesome." He said with a grin.

She laughed and shoved him sideways as he guffawed.

"I was… well I was a lot funner before the accident. I was a cheerleader and… well… I was a little bit of a party girl." Elena shrugged, thinking back on the days when she would raid the liquor cabinet with Caroline and Bonnie before bribing someone to refill it so that they wouldn't get in trouble.

"Really?" Dean asked, it was his turn to raise his eyebrow.

"Oh yeah, I was a little bit wild. I don't really know why. But then the accident happened and I think I turned into a bit of a bore. I just didn't find that stuff fun anymore. I wasn't even going to do the Miss Mystic Falls competition and…"

"Wait wait wait, the what competition?" Dean stopped her, holding his hands out.

Her cheeks burned and she knew that he would make fun of her for it.

"It's a sort of pageant. All of the young women of the town dream of being in this thing but it's really a competition between the daughters of the founding families." Elena said.

"Founding families?" Dean asked, sounding as though this story was getting better and better for him.

"Yes, the founding families. The Gilbert family, the Forbes family, the Lockwood family, the Fell family, and… well… the Salvatores but you know, they're vampires and male." She said, nodding.

"And you all, what, dress up all pretty and dance around and stuff?" Dean asked.

"Pretty much, yeah." She replied.

"Did you win?" he asked, grinning at her.

"No, Caroline did. But I didn't try very hard, you know? It was only a few months after the accident and Stefan was… well he was going through a hard time and Damon was there being confusing and… I was overwhelmed so winning was the last thing on my mind. I did not care that Caroline won." She sighed.

"Well, if it makes a difference, I think you would have made a wonderful Miss Mystic Falls whatever." He assured her.

She smiled up at him. Her mind wandered as she studied his flawless yet troubled face. He may not have been showing it all the time, but she could tell that there was almost something going through his mind that troubled him. She reached out and touched his face hesitantly.

"I'm so sorry." Elena murmured, caressing his cheek.

"For what?" he asked, his voice soft and questioning.

"For what you had to go through. For having to live through hell for forty years." She said, feeling such horrible sadness for this broken man in front of her.

He may have hidden behind perverted jokes and rock music, but she could see that he was truly broken. And there was nothing she wanted to do more than heal those wounds but it wasn't as easy as pressing her hands to his heart and praying for it to work. Dean took a shuddering breath and his hand came up to close over hers. His eyes closed and he just let her cradle his face. When she saw one lonely tear slide out from his dark lashes, she felt her heart break even more for him.

"Oh." She whispered, pulling him towards her and gathering him in her arms.

She held him close as his arms wrapped around her and pulled her tight against him.

"You are not alone, do you hear me? I am here. Sam is here and Bobby is here. You are not alone anymore." she whispered in his hear, stroking his soft hair as he did so.

She hated to admit it as she was comforting him, but being this close to Dean felt more perfect than she ever could have imagined. There was always a certain hesitance with Stefan, when he touched her she was always wary of him even though she did trust him. She was right to be as he was a vampire. And when Damon got too close to her, which was far too often for her liking, she felt a little bit of fear at his proximity. But with Dean, there was nothing holding her back. He was so perfectly human, that much was obvious by his heartbeat that she could feel thudding against his ribs.

He pulled away from her and looked at her with eyes full of unshed tears. That was when she realized that he'd basically pulled her into his lap when their embrace began. As they simply stared at each other, she continued to stroke his hair softly.

"We kissed earlier." He said, looking down at where his arms were wrapped around her.

Elena nodded, a small smile playing on her lips. She was wondering when one of them were actually going to bring it up and admit that it happened.

"Twice." She reminded him.

He let out a short laugh and nodded.

"And?" he asked

"And… it was very impassioned." She breathed, staring into his green eyes that were one of her favorite parts of him.

"That's good, right?" he questioned.

She let out a laugh and nodded.

"Yes, it's good." Elena confirmed.

"Good." He said, nodding triumphantly as he made no move to push her off of his lap where she was quite comfortable.

Her legs were spread out on the hood of the Impala and she was sort of sitting sideways but his heat was warming her up fantastically.

"That's all? Good? Because I thought it was a little bit more than good. I mean, I for one…" she was cut off by his soft lips capturing hers once more.

She relaxed into the kiss immediately, threading her fingers through his hair as he held her close to his torso. Their lips parted at the same time and Elena sighed softly when his hand slid up her body to tangle into her long hair. The kisses weren't as passionate as before but that didn't make them any less amazing. They were soft and sweet and even reverent, as if each of them were worshipping the other's lips slowly and sensually. When they slowly withdrew, their eyes both fluttered open and they stared at each other.

Unspoken communication passed through them and they made an agreement right then and there. They weren't going to ruin this by talking about it and stressing over what it was. Because it was best thing that either of them had in a long time and they weren't about to let that go.

* * *

When Elena woke up, Sam was moving around the motel room. She watched him walk over to Dean and shake him. The older Winchester swatted him away and let out a few curse words in his brother's direction that would make a sailor blush. Elena sat up slowly, stretching out and watching as Sam threw stuff in bags, not bothering to try to rouse his brother again.

"Do you think you could wake him up while I go put this stuff in the car? I don't think he'll hit you." Sam said as he grabbed the two duffle bags full of weapons.

"Yeah." She nodded, yawning immediately after, looking over at Dean, who looked as though he was sleeping once again.

She smiled and slid out of her bed, kneeling beside his and looking at his peaceful face. Her hand reached out hesitantly, stroking his cheek softly. Dean mumbled and stirred but his eyes didn't open.

"Wake up, sleepy head." She sang softly, brushing her hands through his mussed hair.

He groaned and shook his head and she knew that he was awake then, just being stubborn as was normal.

"Come on, Dean." She murmured, stroking down his cheek to his jawline, then to his lips.

His lips puckered and pressed a soft kiss to her thumb, causing her to smile.

"You have to wake up." She urged him quietly before leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to his forehead.

Before she knew it, his arms shot out and locked around her waist, dragging her onto the bed in an inescapable grip.

"Dean!" she squealed, struggling against him as she laughed at his antics.

"I don't wanna get out of bed!" he grumbled, holding her tight against him.

"Sam! Help!" she called, a wide grin on her face as she tried to squirm out of his arms.

Sam ran in and sighed when he saw the situation Elena was in. Then something occurred to her, something that she remembered. She reached out hesitantly and began stroking the sides of his torso softly. He wriggled away and she heard a small laugh escape from his mouth. She grinned and continued to do what she was doing, a little more pressure. Finally Dean couldn't control himself anymore and he began thrashing against her tickling.

"Let me go!" she commanded, laughing at his high pitched giggling.

"Stop tickling me!" he breathed heavily, trying to stop laughing as she continued.

"Let me go first!"

Finally they pushed away from each other at the same time and Dean sat up, catching his breath slowly. Elena remained laying down, grinning out of triumph.

"I won." She said, sitting up and sliding out of the bed.

"You cheated." He accused her.

Elena shrugged as she walked into the bathroom to change clothing. When she came out, her hair thrown up into a messy bun and regular jeans and a t-shirt on without a spot of make up, the boys turned to look at her with surprise. Sure, she looked normal in the mornings, but she never let herself be seen without nice clothing and her hair perfectly done.

"I feel lazy today." She informed them.

"That's not gonna fly, 'Lena. Cause you see, we got ourselves another case." Dean said, taking her bag from her and throwing his arm around her shoulders.

"Another one?" she asked, surprised.

"Yep! Rock Ridge, Colorado just outside of Denver." Sam confirmed as they walked out of the motel room.

"Isn't Colorado almost a full day's drive away?" Elena asked, stopping short while staring at them.

"Yes it is." Dean said, nodding at her as both him and Sam looked guilty, as if they hoped she wouldn't know that.

Elena narrowed her eyes at them and raised an eyebrow. They knew that she didn't like full day's rides because they always were exhausted afterwards.

"Elena, how would you like to learn how to drive the Impala?" Dean offered even though it pained him to suggest that someone drive his baby other than him.

"Oh stop sucking up." Elena said, rolling her eyes as she walked towards the car.

Just to keep her happy, Sam climbed into the back and allowed her to have the front. She rolled her eyes once more and leaned on the door with her head on the window as Dean pulled out of the parking lot. When they were finally driving down the highway out of the town, she felt a slight poke in her arm. Elena turned to see Dean holding the iPod dock out to her with big puppy dog eyes that pleaded with her. She felt a smile on her face before she could help it at his cute little peace offering.

She shook her head and opened the glove compartment, digging through the tapes. She put on the one named '**mix**' because she knew that it held all of Dean's favorite songs. He couldn't hold back his grin as she slid it into the radio. Elena pushed herself away from the door and scooted a little closer, reaching out and taking his hand in hers. When he looked at her with surprise, she smiled warmly at him. Then she looked back at Sam, who was spread out on the backseat with his arm thrown over his eyes. When the first few notes of the song came on, Dean reached down and turned it up, causing Elena to laugh as he began doing air drums, his hand slipping out of hers just so that he could dance to the song.

"Slow ride! Take it easy!" they both began to sing.

"Slow ride!" Dean nodded, pointing at her.

"Take it easy!" she yelled back to him, dancing along with the music.

"Sing it, Sammy!" Dean yelled, pointing back at his brother as he continued to play the drums on the steering wheel.

"I'm in the mood! The rhythm is right! Move to the music! We can roll all night!" Sam sang without moving from his lying down position.

"Slow down! Go down! Got to get your lovin' one more time!" Elena half yelled, half sang, grinning as she danced around.

"Hold me! Roll me! Slow ridin' woman you're so fine!" Dean continued, nodding his head with the beat.

Sam actually sat up and began mimicking playing the guitar. Elena could not help but laugh as the boys acted like they were playing in the band. She sang for them as they both yelled encouragments at her. Elena was pretty sure that anyone passing by would have thought that the three freaks in the car were most likely insane. But that was part of the fun, acting insane.

* * *

When they arrived in Colorado early the next morning, the boys having switched off several times so that the other could sleep, they were all pretty energized and ready to go.

"Can I be someone other than monster bait this time?" she asked as they drove through the quiant little town.

"Actually…" Dean reached over to the glove compartment and handed back a black ID badge holder.

She opened it to see a picture of her with the FBI insignia on it.

"Are you serious?" she gasped.

"You're only an analyst because I don't think that you would get away with being an actual agent. You're just traveling with us because you're good at weird cases." Sam said.

"I don't care!" she squealed, hugging both of them from behind.

"Tabitha Remington." She said, reading the name.

"Non-stripper enough for you?" Dean asked, winking at her through the rearview mirror.

"It's perfect." She said, smiling at the last name.

She knew enough to know that Remington was a type of gun manufacturer, just like Winchester was.

* * *

Unfortunately, Elena had nothing to wear to be an FBI agent. So Sam and Dean dropped her off at a nice looking store to buy something. It was a few blocks away from the motel so she assured them that she would meet them there. When she finally finished shopping, having found a few things to wear depending how long they were going to be in the town, she walked to the motel. There was a text on her phone telling her which room so she went to it and knocked. Dean opened the door in his usual fashion, a gun ready in his hand.

"One day you're accidentally going to shoot someone you like." she commented as she brushed past him.

"Don't worry, darling. I won't shoot you." he said, kissing the back of her head as she placed the bags on her bed.

Sam didn't see as he was immersed in the notes that Bobby had relayed to him over the phone. Elena smiled at how normal it seemed for Dean to do that. {erhaps it was the best thing for them not to talk about what was going on.

"You can go head and go to the police station if you want. It's going to take me a while to make myself look like something other than an eighteen year old." Elena said, picking up some of the clothes out of the bag and her curling iron out of her backpack.

"We'll wait for you." Dean assured her, sitting at the table with Sam.

"Yeah, we're not really in a hurry." Sam assured her.

She smiled her thanks as she walked into the bathroom to shower and get ready. The boys began to regret assuring her that they would stay when, an hour and a half later, she was still in the bathroom. They were getting antsy as they were ready to get out and solve this case. Finally, Elena emerged and they looked shocked at her appearance. Her hair was pulled back into a perfectly curled ponytail and the top was smoothed out with a side part.

Her outfit consisted of a white ¾ sleeve shirt tucked into a mini pencil skirt, and a black blazer along with black t-strap shoes on her feet. Her make up wasn't all that dramatic, just enough to highlight her face.

"How do I look?" she asked, twirling around for them.

"Fantastic." They both said in their strange way of saying things at the exact same time in the exact same voice.

A radiant smile spreaded slowly across her face.

"Really?" she asked, smoothing out her skirt.

"You look beautiful." Dean said as they stood up, fixing their own suits.

"Well don't we look like a trio. All business like." Elena said, smiling up at them.

* * *

When they arrived at the police station, they were immediately brought back to the morgue. Elena was shocked when they didn't even question her status as an FBI analyst. She stood back a bit, wrinkling her nose at the smell in the morgue. She knew that Sam and Dean had to have been used to it, but she didn't know how she would ever get to where it didn't bother her. When the coroner pulled a body out of one of the drawers, she peeked around them to see a man who looked pretty normal other than being deathly pale, of course.

"He died of a heart attack, right?" Dean confirmed.

"Three days ago." the coroner nodded.

"But O'Brien was forty four years old and, according to this, a marathon runner." Sam said, looking down at the medical file.

"Everybody drops dead sooner or later. It's why I got job security." The coroner said, turning to grin at Elena.

He kept looking at her with the same creepy look ever since they showed up in the morgue. She smiled hesitantly and knew that it came out as more of a grimace.

"Yeah, but Franz kicked it here. Now, just yesterday, two perfectly healthy men bit it in Maumee. All heart attacks, you don't think that's strange?" Dean asked, noticing the man's fascination with Elena and attempting to get his roving eyes off of her.

"Sounds like Maumee's problem to me. Why's the FBI give a damn, anyway?" the man asked, sounding a bit annoyed at Dean and Sam's presence.

"We want to see the results of Frank's autopsy." Sam sighed, closing the medical chart.

"What autopsy?" the coroner scoffed, gesturing the Mr. O'Brien's clearly unmarked body.

Elena sighed, knowing that they were getting nowhere with this. She walked forward, ignoring the fact that the smell got worse when she approached the doctor. She reached out and hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It would just make our jobs a whole lot easier if you would do the autopsy, Dr. Fields." She said, sneakily glancing down at his nametag.

"You know, the red tape and all that. Can't close a case until we know all of the facts, right agents?" she said, her eyes sliding to Dean and Sam.

"Yeah, right." they both agreed.

She turned back to the coroner, who was basically gawking at her.

"So, for us, for me, could you please do the autopsy and make my life much easier?" she asked hopefully, looking up at him through her lashes.

"I suppose an autopsy wouldn't hurt. After all, we don't know if there's any suspicious circumstances surrounding his death." Dr. Fields said, smiling creepily at her.

"Exactly what I was thinking. Thank you so much." she said, rubbing his shoulder as he looked down at the body excitedly.

She turned to Sam and Dean and rolled her eyes before walking away.

Ten minutes later, Sam and Dean had gown that tied in the back draped over their suits and they were all wearing gloves as the coroner sliced into the body with Sam and Dean standing on the other side of the table. He insisted on the boys being there. Elena excused herself to a metal stool in the corner, happy to be as far away from intestines as she could be.

"First dead body?" the coroner asked, catching sight of the brothers' matching disgusted looks as he cut into the man's chest.

"Far from it." Dean said.

"Oh good. Because these suckers can get pretty ripe. It's a good think you're over there, Miss Remington. Hey, hand me those rib cutters, would you?" he asked, gesturing to Dean.

Elena winced as he cut the ribs open and noticed that Sam was squirming a bit. Dean glanced down at the man's hand and noticed something.

"Hey is that from a wedding ring? I didn't think Frank was married." He said, touching the hand.

"Ain't my department." Dr. Fields said simply.

"Any idea how he got these?" Sam asked, picking up his arm to show off impressive scrapes running down it.

Elena was stuck taking notes because they couldn't have her doing nothing or her cover wouldn't look very convincing. So she wrote down, 'strange scrapes, looks like he was doing wheelies on a motorcycle and crashed'.

"You know what? When you drop dead, you actuall tend to drop. Body probably got scraped up when it hit the ground." The coroner shrugged as Sam set the arm back donw.

"Huh!" Dr. Fields said, looking a bit confused.

Elena looked up to see what was going on.

"What?" Sam asked.

"I… I can't find any blockages in any of the major arteries." He said, reaching into the chest.

Elena heard a crunching/ripping noise and watched as the coroner pulled out the man's heart. She smiled as Dean fought back the urge to vomit. Perhaps he was lucky that he hadn't met Elijah yet or he would have been introduced to the art of ripping out hearts a long time ago.

She knew that it should have bothered her that the fact that the coroner was holding a heart didn't bother her, but she was entirely nonplussed about it.

"Heart looks pretty damn healthy." The coroner said, examining it closely.

Dean nodded, looking disgusted. Then the coroner handed him the heart.

"Hold that a second, would you?" he said, not caring that Dean looked as though he was about to faint.

Elena saw Sam smirking and she shook her head. Suddenly the coroner ripped something else in the body and blood squirted all over Sam's face. Elena was surprised that he didn't drop right there. The coroner looked up with surprise and amusement.

"Oh, sorry. Spleen juice." He shrugged.

Dean looked satisfied as he grinned, holding the heart like it was a trophy all of the sudden.

"Please get it off." Sam whimpered.

Elena sighed and stood, walking to Sam and grabbing his arm. She led him over to the sink and began wiping the blood off of his face with a wet paper towel.

"I would have thought you'd be used to blood. Your job must get messy, Agent Perry." She said with a smirk.

Sam opened his eyes once the blood was gone and mock glared at her.

"There's a difference between blood and 'spleen juice'." He said, shuddering once more as she finished cleaning it off.

"Well, you're all clean now." She assured him, patting his cheek.

"Are you sure? Cause I think some got in my nose." Sam said, looking unsure of himself.

"That's all you." she said as she walked off.

* * *

Thirty minutes after the autopsy ended, luckily without anymore blood spraying on anyone's face, they were sitting outside of the sheriff's office. The deputy smiled happily at Dean and left Elena wondering why everyone they'd met so far was kind of creepy. The door opened and the sheriff came walking out with no shoes on.

"Hell's bells, Linus, have you seen my… who are they?" he asked, noticing the three of them.

"Federal agents. I, uh…" Deputy Linus said.

"And you kept them waiting?" the sheriff demanded, glaring at his deputy.

"You, you said not to disturb." Linus said, looking confused and a little afraid.

"Come back ma'am, fellas." He said, nodding at them as they stood.

They walked over to the office but he stopped them.

"Shoes off." he instructed, nodding down to their feet.

They sighed and slid their shoes off to walk into the office.

"Al Britton. Good to meet you." he said, holding his hand out to them individually.

Sam pulled up a third chair as they all sat down.

"Thank you." Sam replied, nodding at the sheriff.

They watched as he took out alcohol gel and slathered it on his hands, scrubbing at them until they were pink.

"Okay. So what can I do for Uncle Sam?" Sheriff Britton asked, smiling up at them.

"Well, we're looking into the death of Frank O'Brien. We understand some of your men found his body." Dean said, looking at him with a weird look on his face.

"They did. Me and Frank, we were friends. Hell, we were gamecocks." The sheriff said somberly.

Dean let out a chuckle and the sheriff gave him a stern look, effectively quieting him.

"That's our softball team's name." Dean nodded, serious once again.

"They're majestic animals." He said, narrowing his eyes at Dean, who looked as though he really didn't know what to say after that.

"I knew Frank since high school. To be honest, I just this morning got up the strength to go see him Frank was… he was a good man." Britton said, nodding.

"Yeah. Big heart." Dean nodded, grimacing slightly.

Elena rolled her eyes and leaned forward, touching the sheriff's hand.

"I am so sorry for your loss, Sheriff Britton." She said, nodding solemnly at him.

"Thank you, ma'am." He said, smiling slightly.

"Before he died, did you notice Frank acting strange? Maybe scared of something?" Sam asked once Elena sat back again.

"Oh hell, yeah. Real jumpy." Britton confirmed.

"You know what scared him?"

"No. Wouldn't answer his phone. Finally, I sent some of my boys over to check on him and, well, you know the rest." the sheriff began coughing and reached over to put more alcohol gel on.

Elena, Dean, and Sam watched with similar, 'what the hell', looks on their faces.

"So, why the feds give a crap? You don't really think there's a case here?" Britton asked, acting as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

Dean looked at Sam then Elena.

"No, no it's probably nothing. Just a heart attack." He said, but his voice told them both that they were checking it out.

* * *

"No way that was a heart attack." Dean said as they walked towards the street that the Impala was parked on once they left the station.

"Definitely no way. Three victims, all with those same red scratches. All went from jittery to terrifid to dead within forty-eight hours." Sam listed.

"Something scared them to death?" Elena asked, walking between them as she looked up at Sam.

"Yeah." Dean nodded.

"All right, so what can do that?" Sam asked.

"What can't? Ghosts, vampires, chupacabra? It could be a hundred things." Dean replied

"Yeah, so we make a list and start crossing things off." Sam nodded.

"All right. Who's the last person to see Frank O'Brien alive?" Dean questioned

"His neighbor, Mark Hutchins." Elena answered, holding up the case file that she got from the deputy after using similar tactics as with the coroner.

"See? You are becoming more like us." Dean said, patting her shoulder fondly.

Then he stopped short as he looked ahead.

"Hang on, hang on." he said, grabbing Elena's arm to stop her.

"What?" Sam asked, looking back at him.

"I don't like the looks of those teenagers down there." he said, refusing to look the way of the Impala.

Sam and Elena turned to see a few nerdy teenagers on bikes guffawing as they hung out on the sidewalk near their car.

"Let's walk this way." Dean said, turning to walk across the street.

Sam and Elena stood there with matching perplexed looks as Dean did everything he could to avoid passing the thirteen year olds with pimples.

* * *

They were immediately invited into the neighbor's house, almost as though the man was glad for their company. Elena was turning out to be more and more right, this entire town was creepy. Nevermind that the neighbor had a snake draped around his shoulders.

"I'm Agent Tyler. This is Agent Perry and Miss Remington." Dean said as they walked into the living room.

"Tyler and Perry. Just like Aerosmith." The neighbor said as they sat down.

Dean was looking around the room with a strange look on his face.

"Yeah, small world. So, the last time you saw Frank O'Brien?" Sam asked.

Elena watched as Dean caught sight of a large lizard and snapped his head forward, swallowing audibly.

"Monday, he was watching me from his window. I waved at him, but he just closed the curtains." Mr. Hutchins said.

"Did you speak to him recently? Did he seem different? Scared?" Elena threw in since it didn't seem like Dean would be offering anything to the conversation anytime soon.

"Oh totally. He was freaking out." Hutchins said, nodding emphatically.

Sam and Elena looked at Dean for any input but he only looked terrified.

"Do you know, uh, do you know what scared him?" Sam asked as Elena nudged Dean and gave him a questioning look.

"Well yeah, witches." Hutchins said, stroking his snake softly.

"Witches?" Dean asked, his voice a little higher pitched than normal.

Elena and Sam turned to him with wide eyes.

"Well, 'Wizard of Oz' was on TV the other night, right? And he said that green bitch was totally out to get him."

"Anything else scare him?" Elena asked, keeping any eye on the elder Winchester out of the corner of her eye.

"Everything else scared him. Al-Qaeda, ferrets, artificial sweetener. Those pez dispensers with their dad little eyes. Lots of stuff." Hutchins said.

"So, tell me. What was Frank like?" Sam asked, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees.

"I mean, he's dead, you know? I… I don't want to hammer him, but he got better."

"He got better?" Sam asked.

"Well, in high school, he was a dick." Hutchins shrugged.

"A dick?" Elena questioned, raising her eyebrow.

"Like a bully. I mean, he probably taped half the town's butt cheeks together."

Dean snickered and Elena and Sam both rolled their eyes.

"Mine included." Hutchins said, staring at Dean.

"So he pissed a lot of people off? You think anyone would have wanted to get revenge?" Dean asked, finally offering something substantial to the conversation.

"Well I don't… Frank had a heart attack, right?" Hutchins asked, his eyes wide.

"Just answer the questions, sir. They're normal just for follow up." Elena assured him, smiling slightly.

"No. I don't think so. Like I said, he got better. After what happened to his wife." The man said, nodding at them.

"His wife? So he was married." Dean said.

"She died about twenty years ago. Frank was really broken up about it." Hutchins confirmed.

Elena noticed Dean staring at the snake around the man's neck and apparently, so did Hutchins.

"Don't be scared of Donny. He's a sweetheart. It's Marie you got to look out for." Hutchins nodded to the couch between Elena and Dean.

"She smells fear." Elena looked to see an albino snake creeping up onto the back of the couch.

She gasped before remembering that they wouldn't hurt you unless you gave them a reason too.

"Well aren't you a pretty girl, Marie?" she breathed, reaching her hand out hesitantly to touch the snake as it turned its head towards her.

Dean let out a whimpering noise as it turned to him and began crawling down onto its lap.

* * *

After leaving Mark Hutchins' home, they decided to go back to the motel and regroup. But really Elena and Sam wanted to figure out what the hell was going on with Dean.

"Dude, you're going twenty." Sam said, looking at the speedometer.

"And?" Dean asked.

"That's the speed limit." Sam said, staring at his brother with surprise.

"What? Safety's a crime now?" Dean scoffed, passing right by their hotel.

"Dean, where are you going? That was our hotel." Elena said, gesturing back to it.

"Elena, I'm not gonna make a left-hand turn into oncoming traffic. I'm not suicidal." Dean said calmly.

They both gave him a confused look.

"Did I just say that? That's weird." Dean sighed, smiling at them both.

Suddenly a strange noise sounded and Sam and Elena both look at Sam's bag.

"Do you hear something?" Dean asked, looking around the car.

Sam pulled his EMF out and began moving it to and from Dean as it made the loudest sound when nearest to him. Dean's eyes got very wide as Elena and Sam braced themselves for yet another weird thing to come out of Dean's mouth.

"Am I haunted? Am I haunted?!" Dean demanded, sounding panicked and ready to perform an exorcism on himself.

* * *

It took a while but they managed to get Dean back to the hotel, out of the car, and into the bed. Elena sat next to him as Sam went to go call Bobby for answers.

"If I get possessed by a demon, will you use the demon-killing knife on me?" Dean asked with wide eyes, pulling the covers up to his chin.

Elena let out a soft laugh.

"You can't get possessed, Dean. Remember your special tattoo?" she asked, patting his chest.

"Oh yeah." He said, sounding relieved.

"If I turn into a vampire, will you cut my head off?" he asked, sounding terrified once again.

"Nope, we'll get Cas to fix you right up." She assured him, stroking his hair.

"Oh." He nodded, relaxing once again.

"If I…" he began again.

"Dean! Relax! Everything will be fine. You just need to go to sleep and by the time you wake up, Sam and Bobby'll have this figured out and we'll know how to fix it." Elena assured him, stroking his cheek.

She slowly bent down to kiss his forehead but he stopped her.

"Germs." He whimpered.

Elena sighed and stood, turning off the lamp and stroking his cheek once more before walking to the other bed to sit down and check her phone.

* * *

The next day, Elena practically had to shove Dean out of the room because he was afraid that the sun would burn him to a crisp. He didn't hesitate to, once he got outside, run to the car and take refuge in it. Elena sighed as she stood beside it and Dean turned on the radio to comfort himself, 'Eye of the Tiger' coming on. When she saw Sam crossing the street as he finished a call, she sighed with relief. He was also holding donuts.

"He's afraid of the sun now!" Elena sighed, exasperated.

"So we have the shower, the television, the coffee maker, the phone book, your high heels, the carpet, and the sun that he's afraid of?" Sam listed.

"Yep." She nodded.

Sam sighed and drummed on the car, causing Dean to sit up and climb out of the car through the window.

"Dude look at this." he pulled his sleeve up to show them several scratches right where the scrapes on the other victims were.

"I just talked to Bobby." Sam said, handing him the box of donuts.

"And?" Dean asked, smelling them before throwing them into the car.

"Um, well, you're not gonna like it." he said.

"What?" Dean asked warily.

"It's ghost sickness." Sam said, making a 'what can you do' face.

"Ghost sickness?" Dean repeated.

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"God, no." Dean said, leaning against the car as if he'd lost all hope.

"Yeah." Sam repeated.

"I don't even know what that is." Dean said honestly.

"Okay, some cultures believe that certain spirits can infect the living with a disease, which is why they stopped displaying bodies in houses and started taking them off to funeral homes." Sam explained.

"Okay, get to the good stuff." Dean nodded desperately.

"Symptoms are you get anxious…"

"Yeah." Dean said.

"Then scared, then really scared, then your heart gives out. Sound familiar?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, but Sam, we haven't seen a ghost in a few days." Dean said.

"Well, I doubt you caught it from a ghost. Look, once a spirit infects that first person, ghost sickness can spread like any disease through a cough, a handshake, whatever. It's like the flu. Now, Frank O'Brien was the first to die, which means he was probably the first infected. Patient zero." Sam explained.

"Our very own Typhoid Mary." Dean nodded.

"Frank was in Maumee over the weekend. Softball tournament. Which is where he must have infected the other two victims." Elena threw in, thinking back to the case file.

"Were they gamecocks?" Dean asked with a slight smile.

"Cornjerkers." Sam said with the same smile.

Elena rolled her eyes at both of them.

"So, ghosts infected Frank. He passed it onto the other guys and I got it from his corpse?" Dean asked.

"Right." Sam nodded.

"So what now, I have forty-eight hours before I go insane and my heart stops?" Dean questioned, not smiling anymore.

"More like twenty-four." Sam corrected.

"Super." Dean nodded.

"Yeah."

"Well, why me? Why not you? I mean, you got hit with the spleen juice." Dean said, gesturing to Sam.

"Yeah, um, you see Bobby and I have a theory about that too. Turns out all three victims had a certain, uh, personality type Frank was a bully. The other two victims, one was a vice principal, the other was a bouncer." Sam said.

"Okay." Dean gestured for him to elaborate.

"Basically, they were all dicks." Elena put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing at that.

"So you're saying I'm a dick?" Dean demanded, glaring at Sam.

"No, no, no. It's not just that. All three victims used fear as a weapon, and now this disease is just returning the favor." Sam said, putting his hand up in surrender.

"I don't scare people." The older brother scoffed, shaking his head.

"Dean, all we do is scare people." Sam sighed.

"Okay, well then you're a dick too." Dean snapped.

"Apparently, I'm not." Sam said.

"Whatever! How do we stop it?" Dean growled.

"We gank the ghost that started all this. We do that, the disease should clear up." Sam suggested.

"You're thinking it's Frank's wife?" Elena asked, looking at Sam.

"Who knows why she killed herself, you know?" Sam shrugged.

They all noddded as the climbed into the car to go find out more about Frank's wife.

* * *

After figuring out that Jessie O'Brien's body was cremated, they were back at square one with the ghost thing. Elena and Sam were watching as Dean read a book at the table. He kept blinking and rubbing at his eyes, looking up at the clock every now and then. Elena stood, brushing off her dress and walking to the door.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked, looking up at her.

"Isn't there an angel or something that wants to keep Dean alive? Maybe he could help us out." Elena said, wrenching the door open and walking outside.

"Castiel? You there? Cause we could really use your help?" she questioned, looking up at the sky.

There was no answer. Elena didn't know if she expected there to be one.

"It'd just be nice to know what the hell is going on. I mean, Dean is dying and you haven't even popped in to fix him and I have no idea where the hell to even start. I know I'm not strong enough." She sighed, rubbing her temples as they throbbed painfully.

After a few more minutes of silence, she turned and walked back inside to find Sam sitting next to Dean, who began to cough.

"Is he ok?" Elena asked, crossing the room quicky.

Her question was answered when Dean turned red and began to choke.

"Dean!" Sam exclaimed as he shot up and gagged over the sink.

They stood over him as he coughed something hard up that fell into the sink. Dean reached down to grab it, only to see that it was a wood chip. Sam smiled and Elena wondered exactly what he could be smiling about. His brother was coughing up wood.

"We've been completely ignoring the biggest clue we have, you." Sam said, patting Dean's shoulder.

"I don't want to be a clue." Dean said pathetically.

"The abrasions, this, the disease, it's trying to tell us something." Sam said, smiling at Dean and Elena.

"Tell us what, wood chips?" Dean asked skeptically.

* * *

It didn't take long to find the only wood mill in town. Elena was glad that she chose to change as they pulled up to it. Sam and her got out immediately but Dean was a little slower.

"I'm not going in there." he said apprehensively.

"Yes you are." Elena and Sam said, walking to the trunk and opening it.

They heard a noise and looked around the trunk hatch to see that Dean was drinking whiskey straight from the bottle.

"Let's do this." he nodded, replacing it in the door of the car.

Elena shook her head as Sam pulled out weapons.

"It is a little spooky, isn't it?" Dean asked, looking at the abandoned building.

Sam handed Dean a gun and he shook his head.

"Oh I'm not carrying that. It could go off. I'll man the flashlight." Dean nodded, pulling it out of the hatch.

Elena rolled her eyes and took the gun from Sam. As she took it, Dean jumped slightly and looked at her with wide eyes.

"Please don't shoot me by accident." He pleaded.

"I won't." she said, smiling reassuringly at him.

He nodded and turned his back.

"If I shoot you, it won't be an accident." She mumbled much to Sam's amusement.

As they walked inside the dark and dusty building, Sam leading with his gun held up and Elena carrying the EMF, it started going off.

"EMF's not gonna work with me around, is it?" Dean asked nervously.

"You don't say. Come on." Sam said, pocketing the think.

Sam stopped them when he spotted something on the ground, causing Dean to jump and stare at him with wide eyes. Sam bent down and picked up a silver ring.

"To Frank, love Jessie. Frank O'Brien's ring." He said, reading the inscription.

"What the hell was Frank doing here?" Elena wondered as they walked on.

"No idea." Sam sighed.

They ended up in a room full of lockers. Rustling was coming out of one of them and Sam made a move to open it. Dean stared at it apprehensively as he shined the flashlight on it.

"On three." Sam mouthed, reaching towards the handle.

Elena raised her gun to be ready for whatever jumped out.

"One, two… three!" Sam ripped the door open.

It was not the sound of a gunshot that filled the room but the hiss of a cat and Dean's girlish scream that seemed to go on for about ten seconds while Elena and Sam stared at him with wide eyes. When he was done shrieking like a little girl, Dean bent over taking noisy and deep breaths. When he stood, he caught sight of Elena and Sam's matching 'what the hell' faces.

"That was scary!" he breathed, grinning at them.

They both turned to walk away, hearing him whimper "wait" as they did so. They arrived in a room with a few conveyer belts and Sam walked to a desk. He picked up and ID card and showed it to Elena.

"Luther Garland." She said, shrugging.

Dean caught sight of a piece of paper on the bulletin board and peered at it.

"Hey, this is… uh… this is Frank's wife." He said, pointing at the drawing of a woman.

"Plot thickens." Sam said.

"Yeah, but into what?" Dean asked, tearing the paper off of the board.

At that moment, the machines started up and they all whirled around. Dean looked around with the flashlight as Sam and Elena pulled out their guns again. When they looked up at him, they saw that his eyes were wide and he was staring into the corner. They turned to see a large man facing away from them who looked suspiciously like Luther Garland's picture. Both Sam and Elena held up the guns, Elena staying beside Dean as Sam creeped forward

"Hey!" he said, causing the ghost to jump slightly as well as Dean.

When she felt something brush her side, she turned to see Dean hauling ass out of the lumber mill. When she turned to Sam, he rolled his eyes and shot the apparition as it came at them. Then they both turned and walked after Dean.

"Can we give him some sedatives?" Elena asked, cursing the fact that she'd just got on a comfortable level, kissing him and everything, just for him to go all crazy.

"I wish." Sam sighed, shaking his head.

They found Dean hiding behing the Impala finishing off the bottle of whiskey that was over halfway full when they left it.

* * *

After finding Luther Garland's file and figuring out that he died twenty years ago with a vague explanation of physical trauma as his cause of death, Elena and Sam, dragging Dean along, went to the nursing home where Garland's brother was. As they walked down the hall towards the community room where Mr. Garland was, Dean was freaking out.

"This isn't gonna work. Come on, these badges are fake. What if we get busted? We could go to jail!" Dean exclaimed.

"Dean, shh!" Sam said, stopping them in the hall.

"Deep breath, okay?" Elena said, mimicking taking a deep breath as Dean did so.

"There, you feel better?" she asked soothingly, patting his arm.

Dean shook his head no and they both sighed.

"Just come on, don't scratch." Sam said, pulling him down the hallway.

The room was empty except for one man in the corner. They walked up to him and he looked up.

"Mr. Garland. HI, uh I'm Agent Perry. This is Agent Tyler and Miss Remington, FBI. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your brother, Luther." Sam said.

"Let me see some I.D." Mr. Garland requested calmly.

"Certainly." Elena said, handing her ID to him.

"Those are real, obviously. I mean, who would pretend to be an FBI agent, huh? That's just nutty." Dean ranted, much to their annoyance.

Sam stomped on Dean's foot in an attempt to get him to shut up.

"What do you want to know?" Mr. Garland asked, handing them the ID badges back.

"Uh, well...according to this, your brother Luther died of physical trauma."

Mr. Garland scoffed.

"You don't agree." Elena asked.

"No, I don't." he said.

"Well, then, what would you call it?" Sam asked.

"Don't matter what an old man thinks."

"Mr. Garland. We're just trying to get the truth on your brother. Please." Elena said.

The old man sighed and nodded.

"Everybody was scared of Luther. They called him a monster. He was too big, too mean-looking. Just too different. Didn't matter he was the kindest man I ever knew. Didn't matter he'd never hurt no one. A lot of people failed Luther. I was one of them. I was a widower with three young 'uns. And I told myself there was nothing I could do."

"Mr. Garland, um...do you recognize this woman?" Sam asked, holding out the picture of Jessie O'Brien

"It's Jessie O'Brien. Her man, Frank, killed Luther." The man confirmed.

"How do you know that?" Elena asked.

"Everybody knows. They just don't talk about it. Jessie was a receptionist at the mill. She was always real nice to Luther, and he had a crush on her. But Frank didn't like it. And when Jessie went missing, Frank was sure that Luther had done something to her. Turns out the old gal killed herself, but Frank didn't know that. They found Luther with a chain wrapped around his neck. He was dragged up and down the stretch outside that plant till he was past dead."

Elena gaped, horrified at the brutal murder that Frank O'Brien was never arrested for.

"And O'Brien was never arrested?" Dean asked.

"I screamed to every cop in town. They didn't want to look into Frank. He was a pillar of the community. My brother was just the town freak." Mr. Garland said.

"You must have hated Frank O'Brien." Sam said.

"I did for a long time, but life's too short for hate, son. And frank wasn't thinking straight. His wife had vanished, he was terrified. A damn shame he had to put Luther through the same, but...that's fear. It spreads and spreads." Mr. Garland said knowledgeably.

* * *

As they walked out of the nursing home, Dean sighed as he clutched at his arm.

"Now we know what these are, road rash. And I'm guessing Luther swallowed some wood chips when he was being dragged down that road." Dean said.

"Makes sense. You're experiencing his death in slow motion." Sam nodded.

"Yeah well, not slow enough, huh? Say we burn some bones and get me healthy." Dean suggested.

"Dean, it won't be that easy." Sam said.

Dean stopped short and looked between them with a panicked expression.

"No, no, it'll be that easy. Why wouldn't it be that easy?" he demanded.

"Luther was road-hauled. His body was ripped to pieces. He was probaby scattered all over that road. There's no way we're gonna find all the remains." Sam explained.

"You're kidding me." Dean sighed, rubbing his head.

"Look, we'll just have to figure something out." Elena said, reaching for his arm

He jerked away from her.

"You know what? Screw this." he said, shaking his head.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Dean." Sam said, holding his hands up.

"Come on. No, I mean, come on. What are we doing?" Dean demanded.

"We're hunting a ghost." Elena said simply.

"A ghost, exactly! Who does that?" Dean questioned.

"Us." Sam said.

"Us? Right. And that Sam, that is exactly why our lives suck. I mean, come on, we hunt monsters! What the hell?! I mean, normal people, they see a monster, and they run. But not us, no, no, no, we… we search out things that want to kill us. Yeah? Huh? Or eat us! You know who does that? Crazy people! We... are insane! You know, and then there's the bad diner food and then the skeevy motel rooms. I mean, who wants this life, Sam? Huh? Seriously? Do you actually like being stuck in a car with me eight hours a day, every single day? I don't think so! I mean, I drive too fast. And I listen to the same five albums over and over and over again, a-and I sing along. I'm annoying, I know that. And you… you're gassy! You eat half a burrito, and you get toxic! I mean, you know what? You can forget it." Dean ranted, tossing the keys at Sam.

"Dean! Where are you going?" Elena said, alarmed by this side of Dean.

"Stay away from me, okay? Cause I am done with it. I'm done with the monsters and… and… and the hellhounds and the ghost sickness and the damn apocalypse. I'm out. I'm done. Quit." He said, walking off.

Sam turned to Elena with an exasperated face.

"Maybe let him walk it off, a little bit?" Elena suggested.

* * *

"We looked everywhere for you, Dean. How the hell did you get here?" Sam demanded when they walked into the hotel room.

It was true, Elena and Sam had been driving around the town for an hour.

"Ran?" he said questioningly, looking thoroughly terrified and pale.

"What do we do now? I got less than four hours on the clock. I'm gonna die, Sammy."

"No you're not, Dean. You're never going back." Sam assured him.

"Back?" Dean asked quizzically.

"He means we are not going to let you die, Dean." Elena assured him.

"No! You get out of my brother, you evil son of a bitch!" Dean shouted all of the sudden, launching at Sam.

"Dean!" Elena cried as he crumpled to the ground.

"Hey, hey, hey, Dean. Hey, Dean. Dean. Dean." Sam said, shaking him.

* * *

After Dean was roused from unconsciousness, Elena was left with Dean at the hotel while Sam went to meet Bobby at the lumber mill to try to get rid of the ghost. She was sitting on the other couch while Dean flipped through the channels quickly.

"This isn't helping." He mumbled, dragging his hand down his face.

"Not much longer, Dean. Sam and Bobby are taking care of it now." She assured him, picking at her sweatpants as she didn't know what else to say at this point.

"I feel like I'm going crazy, Elena. There is so many things going on in my head." He whispered, dragging his hands down his face.

Elena wanted to go to him and comfort him, she did. But the last time she tried, it took thirty minutes to coax him out of the bathroom after he swore up and down that her eyes turned yellow.

"It will be all right." she said softly, leaning forward and looking at him with the softest of expressions that she could manage.

"Can you hear the dogs barking?" he whimpered, scratching at his arms.

"Dean there aren't any dogs." She said, confused at his words.

"They're coming. They're coming back for me. I'm going to go back." Dean nodded.

"No you're not going to go back." Elena assured him, feeling her own body going into panic mode as he began to hyperventilate.

"I'm scared that I'm going to go back, Elena." he whimpered, looking up at her with soulful eyes.

She sighed, standing up and throwing all caution to the wind.

"Come on." she said, grabbing his hand and leading him to the bed.

She sat him down and climbed on behind him, on her knees with her arms wrapped around his chest.

"You listen to me, when you hear those dogs bark or you hear someone say you're going back to hell, feel for my arms around you. That's what's real. I'm real, none of that shit. You aren't going back to hell because I won't let you. I swear to God if you go back, I'll go down there and get you myself. You are not going back, Dean Winchester. So you feel for my arms and you know that I am real." She said, squeezing him tightly.

He let out a breath and at first she thought that she was squeezing too tightly until she saw the tears running down his face. He clutched at her arms as if he was holding on for dear life. He was squeezing so hard that Elena was certain that she would have bruises. But she didn't care. If it kept him there and alive, he could break her damn bones for all she cared. When a sharp gasp escaped from his mouth, she saw him looking at a spot with fear in his eyes.

"You can't be here." He growled, clutching at Elena.

"Who's here, Dean?" Elena asked, squeezing him again.

"You are not real!" he shouted.

"Lilith! Why me? Why did I get infected?" he demanded.

"Lilith? Trust me, Dean, that bitch isn't here. Because you know what if she was, I would be kicking her ass, you know that right?" Elena said, whispering into his ear.

"My heart, Elena she's making it explode." Dean grunted in pain.

"Your heart is not going to explode. Sam and Bobby are stopping it. You are going to be fine." She promised him.

She felt his heart thundering against his chest and it was going too fast.

"Dean Winchester I swear to God if you die on me, I will kick your ass when Cas brings you back!" she yelled at him, clutching him closely to her.

Suddenly Dean took in a big, deep breath as if he was revived from death. His heartbeat slowly began turning back to normal and Elena knew that it was over. She looked down at his arms to see that they were healed. She sighed with relief and slumped back onto the bed, still holding onto Dean but a little weaker this time. He slowly pulled away from her and stood, rubbing his chest. She watched from the bed as he turned to look at her.

"I'm ok." He sighed.

"Yeah, you are." She said, nodding as she felt her own thundering heartbeat go back to normal.

He looked down at her and looked relieved.

"Thank you. I would have died before Sammy could stop it if you hadn't been here."

Elena shook her head, pushing herself up on her knees and crawling to the edge of the bed before standing up.

"You are plenty strong enough by yourself. I just figured I would help you out." she shrugged, smiling up at him.

Before she knew it, he yanked her up to his level and his mouth pressed against hers in an almost bruising kiss. She didn't care. So far, they'd had the desperate, "we have to survive" kiss. The passionate "we are actually really attracted to each other" kiss. Then the sweet and soft kiss in the moonlight. Now it was time for the, "we survived and now we can't keep our hands off of each other" kiss. Elena responded in kind, threading her fingers through his hair and tugging on it. She gasped when they collapsed on the bed, Dean flipping them over so that he didn't crush her.

They searched for each other's mouth desperately, their hands all over the other person as their sharp breaths filled the room. Before Elena knew it, she was straddling his lap and she was clutching at his shirt as they kissed passionately. When she drew away and sat up, brushing her out of her face, she saw a startled look on his face.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what…" he began.

"I'm not." She assured him, not wanting to start overthinking this so soon.

She pulled him up to a sitting position and wrapped her arms around his shoulders loosely.

"You're alive, Dean Winchester. I think a little bit of celebratory kissing is in order." She assured him, smiling with satisfaction.

"Oh is it?" he asked, smirking at her.

She sighed with relief, he was back to his normal self.

"Mm-hm." She nodded, pressing her lips together.

"Well… is the time for celebratory kissing over?" he asked, a slow smile spreading across his lips.

"Hmm… let me think." She said, looking pensive.

"Hmm… no." he decided, flipping them over as she giggled.

This time when he captured her lips, it was much softer and more controlled. But it was still just as amazing and set warm shivers all through both of them, electrifying them. When they had their fill of kissing, for the moment, they just laid there with their arms wrapped around each other.

"I guess we should call Sammy and tell him I'm alive." Dean said.

"He'll figure it out soon enough." Elena waved off, smiling up at him.

"Yeah, you're right." Dean shrugged, smiling down at her as he held her closer.

"Hey Dean?" she asked after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah?" he grunted, pulling his fingers through her soft hair.

"You know I'm never gonna let you live down that scream in the locker room, right?" she said, mindlessly drawing circles on his material covered abdomen.

He sighed and she looked up to see his head thrown back.

"I suppose I should have been expecting that." he groaned.

"Yep, you should have. You should also be looking out for this." Elena suddenly began to tickle him and he writhed out of the way of her fingers, pinning her to the mattress as she laughed aloud.

"You'll pay for that." he promised.

"Looking forward to it." she said with a grin.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it and it wasn't too scattered and weird. This is the first chapter that I'm not exactly proud of. Please review and tell me what you think though.**

**READ THIS! So one of my fantastic readers and reviewers, Dark Alana, made two posters for this story. If you would like to see them, I posted them on tumblr under the exact same name as my author name, madameannabeth. Also, if any of you are particularly gifted at making posters or videos (I am not, writing is my thing) and feel the urge to make one for this story, I would love to see your work. So send me a PM and I will let you know how to get those to me.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, neontreeslover, Limetka.111, LineChokor, slayerdiaries, Dark Alana, Meowgli, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, chiwi, SweetCheeks94, Thera-Rocklynn and the four guests for reviewing!**

**READ THIS: A few things before you begin reading:**

**1. I hope a certain few of you won't be disappointed with this chapter since it's bringing together a lot the things that you asked for. Hint: jealous!Dean. **

**2. To Meowgli, no I am not on A03.**

**3. To everyone else who was concerned, no Elena is not a virgin in this story. It is normal up until the third season of TVD. That is where it changed so she has done the 'dance with no pants' with Stefan. **

**4. Also, Castiel sends them a place in this chapter that Elena would really rather not go near. **

**5. For the purposes of this chapter, Elena has been away from her home for three and a half months. Two spent hunting down Dean and one and a half spent with the Winchesters and Bobby going on hunting trips. I know it hasn't seemed like it but that's how I planned the story. Sorry if it's confusing.**

**6. Sorry guys, Damon (that's right, I said Damon) is kind of an ass in this chapter. He'll learn his lesson, don't you worry**

**7. ENJOY!**

* * *

When they heard the Impala rumbling outside of the hotel, Elena and Dean slowly separated. Elena stood and began throwing their things into a bag while Dean remained lying on the bed at her insistence. He had, after all, just recovered from a deathly sickness. Sam and Bobby walked in looking solemn but their faces broke into relieved smiles when they saw Dean alive and well.

"He's fine." Elena assured Sam when he looked at her, smiling at him.

"Did the hallucinations get too bad?" Sam asked hesitantly.

Elena shook her head and smiled back where Dean was hugging Bobby.

"He survived it." she said before turning to the bathroom.

When she came out with her shampoo and other soaps along with her make up and hairstyling products, they were getting packed up. Sam had insisted that Dean sit down while he packed up their stuff.

"You might as well take advantage. He's never gonna let you be so lazy again." Elena warned Dean as he protested.

"I don't need to be lazy." He said in a whiny voice.

"Embrace it." she shrugged.

"Stop whining so much, boy." Bobby growled, rolling his eyes at Dean.

Dean pouted as they all moved around him packing up the hotel room. When Sam tried to insist that he drive instead of Dean, the older brother put his foot down and told them all to stop 'treating him like a damn child'.

* * *

Elena scowled at the ground as they walked up to the hotel after finishing off their latest case. It had been a week since the ghost sickness incident and this was their first case since as they wanted to make sure that Dean was good and rested up.

"Look at it this way, at least we got the bad guys." Dean said with a smile.

Elena turned to glare at him.

"Dean, I'm covered in blood. I have it in my hair, my ears, and all over my clothes. These…" she gestured down to her pants that were once a dark blue color "… were my favorite jeans." She glowered at the brothers.

"But hey, we cleaned out a nest of vampires. You even knocked off a few of your own. You should be proud." Dean said, nudging her with a grin.

Blood dripped down her cheek as if to prove her point.

"I need a shower." She whimpered, looking down at her bloodstained hands.

* * *

They were about an hour outside of Camden, South Caroline and they were heading back to Sioux Falls because they hadn't gotten any wind of new cases to pursue. Sam was in the front seat snoozing against the door and Elena was curled up in the backseat fast asleep, clean with no trace of blood anywhere. When Dean glanced up into the rearview mirror to check on her, he was startled by a pair of dark blue eyes staring at him out of the darkness.

"Hello Dean." Castiel greeted softly from where he was sitting next to Elena.

"Dude, you can't just jump up out of nowhere when someone's driving!" Dean hissed, trying not to wake up the two sleeping people.

"I apologize. I had some information that I had to give you and Elena was not awake to check her phone." The angel said, leaning forward to place his elbows on the seat.

Dean sighed and shook his head.

"What is it?" He grumbled, rubbing his eyes with one hand.

"There is a seal that is about to be broken and we need you to stop it." Castiel said.

Dean stared back at him through the mirror.

"So what, we're your minions or something?" he asked.

"This is important, Dean. This seal has particular importance to Elena. You will stop it for her sake." Castiel said, narrowing his eyes at Dean as if daring him to argue, which was nearly impossible the moment he brought her into the situation.

"What the hell is it?" he sighed, focusing on the road as he squeezed the steering wheel.

"It takes place in Elena's previous town of residence." The angel said.

"Damn, Castiel, do you know how hard it's going to be to get Elena back there? She has no desire to see that place ever again." Dean said knowledgeably.

"I'm aware of that and the fact that the two of you have grown rather close to Elena but this is more important than anything. If this seal is broken then more people will die than you can ever imagine. The entire town of Mystic Falls could be wiped out."

Dean stared at him for a moment.

"You have to tell her." he said.

"What?" Castiel asked, looking a bit startled by the declaration.

"If you're going to make us go back, you get to tell her." Dean said, sounding triumphant as he gestured to the sleeping girl.

Castiel looked over at her with an expression akin to a deer in the headlights. As he reached over and shook her slightly, Dean rolled his eyes. Elena's eyes fluttered open and she sat up, looking around with half open eyes. When she caught sight of Castiel, she stared at him for a moment.

"What's going on?" she asked, her words slurring together a bit.

"Well, Dean wanted me to ask you about something. There is a seal that is going to be broken if it isn't stopped by the three of you." Castiel said.

"Then we need to go stop it." Elena said tiredly, shrugging as it if were obvious.

Dean fought to hide his grin as Castiel looked at him for help. He forgot to mention that Elena wasn't all that easy to wake up when she didn't wake up naturally.

"Well there's a barrier to that solution. It's in Mystic Falls." Castiel said carefully, leaning away from her slightly as if expecting her to lash out.

"Then we will go to Mystic Falls." She yawned.

They both looked at her with surprise.

"You sure you're okay with that, 'Lena?" Dean questioned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. If we can stop the 'pocalypse, I will… survive." She said slowly, her eyes slowly drifting closed.

Both Castiel and Dean were taken off guard when, instead of leaning back against the door, she leaned over and curled into Castiel's side.

"Dean, what do I do?" the angel asked instantly, looking panicked.

If she wasn't already fast asleep and her hand wasn't clutching Castiel's jacket with a death grip, he would suggest waking her up so that she could move.

"I guess you're stuck there, buddy." Dean said with a smirk, wondering how the angel would react to that.

Castiel sighed, leaning back and hesitantly wrapping an arm around Elena to keep her from sliding off of him as he did so. When she made a contented noise and snuggled further into him, Castiel nodded and looked up at Dean for help.

"Am I doing this right?" he asked, his eyes wide and questioning.

"It's not a test, Castiel." He sighed, taking out Elena's phone that they used for navigation and typing in Mystic Falls.

"So tell me about this seal we're going to stop from breaking." He said.

"Well it has something to do with Elena's old friend, Klaus." Castiel said, causing Dean to sigh heavily and ready himself for a difficult time in Elena's old hometown.

* * *

Much to Dean and Castiel's surprise, Elena remained in the same position against Castiel the whole drive and Sam remained asleep as well. Castiel had remained silent after he finished explaining to Dean that he really had no idea what Klaus was going to do and that they would have to figure it out. He sat there, arm wrapped around Elena and pensively staring out the window. When they were only ten minutes away from Mystic Falls, he heard Castiel make a pained sound from the backseat.

"They are calling me back to heaven." He said through gritted teeth, trying to move Elena away from her spot curled up against him.

She just clenched his trenchcoat tighter and made an annoyed whiny sound, burying her face in his chest.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"I don't know, I'm not omniscient." Castiel sighed, struggling to remove himself from Elena's grip.

"Well tell whoever is calling you to shut the hell up." Dean said.

"I can't! It's an archangel." The angel said, marveling over Elena's impressive ability to stay attached to him even as he tried to disentangle himself from her.

He suddenly stopped and looked at Dean with panicked eyes.

"Dean, I'm sor…" he was cut off by his sudden disappearance.

Unfortunately, as she'd been leaning into him, Elena fell to the side and slammed her head on the car door.

"Son of a bitch!" she shouted as she woke up and pressed her hand to her forehead.

"Elena!" Dean panicked at the same, both of their yells waking up Sam, who jumped and looked around with wide eyes.

"What the hell?" she whimpered, her hand coming away with sticky red liquid on them.

Dean swerved over to the side of the road and stopped the car, turning to face her.

"Let me see." He said as Sam turned to see what was going on.

"Leave me alone." She said, swatting his hand away as he reached for her and grimacing painfully.

"Elena you have to let me see it. We may have to take you to the hospital." He said, reaching for her once again.

"What the hell happened?" Sam asked, completely confused by the scene before him.

"I'm fine." Elena said, shoving his hands away and looking forward at them.

Her eyes lit up with recognition and then she looked pissed.

"Does someone want to tell me why the fuck I'm looking at a 'Welcome to Mystic Falls sign'?" she growled, looking more furious than either one of the boys had seen her.

Sam looked clueless while Dean looked guilty and a bit confused.

"You don't remember?" he asked hesitantly.

"Remember what?" she asked low and dangerous.

Dean explained to them what happened when Castiel showed up in the car and Elena's face got a little less angry but not much.

"Just drive." She sighed, keeping her hand pressed to her forehead to keep the blood from flowing down her face.

"We need to check your head out, Elena." Sam said, afraid that she would snap at him.

His fears were not wrong. It didn't help that she was already annoyed about the blood situation with the vampire nest in Camden.

"I'll get Alaric to look at it." she said icily.

"Okay." They both said, turning to the front as they were unwilling to argue with her about it.

She gave Dean stilted, one or two word directions as they drove through the small, picturesque town. When they pulled up to a house, Elena shoved the door open without paying any mind to either of them, walking up the steps to the porch hesitantly. Alaric's car wasn't parked outside but she wasn't sure if Jeremy was there or not. When she knocked on the door a few times, feeling strange doing it to her old home, she sighed and walked back to the bushes that surrounded the outside of the house. She quickly found the spare key where it was buried just under the dirt.

When she looked up, she saw Dean and Sam standing by the Impala awkwardly, looking as though they weren't sure what to do.

"Are you coming?" she asked, gesturing for them to put their asses in gear.

They walked up the sidewalk as she turned and opened the door with the key. When she walked inside, she sighed softly. It kind of felt good to be back in her old home, not that she would admit that to anyone.

"Jer?" she called into the supposedly empty house.

There was no answer. She sighed and winced when she felt her forehead. It was still bleeding.

"Come on." she said, closing the door behind Dean and Sam before walking to the kitchen.

They sat at the table as she dug through around under the sink to get one of the many first aid kits they had in the house. She found it and pulled it out, turning to place it on the counter. She caught sight of the Winchester brothers sitting there and let out a small laugh. Having them in her kitchen in Mystic Falls was something she never imagined happening and she kind of hoped would never happen just so that she wouldn't have to return to the town. Damn Castiel and his stupid angel friends. She dug through the first aid kit and pulled out the gauze to press to her head wound.

Elena was tempted to try to heal it herself but she wasn't quite ready to face questions about that from Sam and Dean. She didn't even know if they were supposed to know. Dean stood and walked to her, towering over her as she looked up at him.

"Let me help you." he said, his eyes slightly pleading.

She sighed and handed the gauze to him, squeezing her eyes shut as he dabbed at the wound.

"I know you're pissed at me and I understand why, but please don't kick me where it counts when I ask you how you're doing, okay?" he murmured.

Her eyes opened and she saw concern in his. She nodded slowly, giving him permission.

"So how are you doing?" he asked, taking the guaze away and taking her hand in his, hidden from Sam by the high counter.

"I'm…" she began to say that she was fine but that was a lie and she really didn't want to lie to either of the brothers.

"I don't know." She sighed.

He squeezed her hand and nodded, pulling away from her to continue doctoring her forehead.

"Say the word and we'll haul ass out of town, right Sammy?" he said, looking at his brother for back up.

"Definitely. The angels can come stop the seal breaking if need be." Sam nodded.

At that moment, they heard the sound of an engine and multiple doors slamming shut. Elena froze and her hand flew out to grab Dean's again. When the sound of footsteps on the porch reached their ears, she began to panic. Why was it a good idea to come to her house first? Why couldn't she go to Caroline's or Bonnie's house?

"What the hell?" she heard a familiar voice as the front door opened.

"What is that Impala doing parked in front of the house?" another voice said, causing Elena to let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding.

She pushed past Dean to walk out of the kitchen slowly. She caught sight of Jeremy standing in the entry way instantly.

"Jer?" she breathed, causing them to turn look at her with shocked eyes.

"Elena?" her little brother questioned.

She nodded, a little shocked herself. It took about two seconds for him to stride across the room and gather her in his arms. She inhaled deeply and embraced him back tightly, a grin spreading across her face.

"What happened to your head?" he asked as he pulled away, looking at it with concerned eyes.

"I had a run in with a car door. I'll tell you later." She said as she untangled herself from him and turned to the other man.

"Hey Ric." She said, a little wary of how he would receive her.

She let out a sigh of relief when he grabbed her into a hug.

"Is that your car out there?" he asked, squeezing her warmly.

She let out a short laugh.

"No, it's not." She said, looking up at him as they drew away from her.

He looked at her questioningly and she sighed, gesturing to the kitchen.

"Follow me." she requested, walking to it where Sam and Dean were, once again, standing there awkwardly as if they had no idea what to do.

Jeremy and Alaric both stopped short at the sight of the two large men.

"Jeremy, Ric, this is Dean and Sam Winchester." She said, pointing at each of them individually.

Something lit up in Alaric's face and she made a note to ask him about that in a moment.

"Sam, Dean, this is Jeremy, my brother, and Alaric Saltzman." Elena said, looking between them as if to gauge how they would react to each other.

"**The** Winchesters?" Alaric asked, his eyes wide.

"Yeah." The brothers said at the same time, exchanging looks.

"Wow, Elena you really know how to attract 'em, don't you?" Alaric sighed, shaking his head with a smile on his face.

"You know about them?" she asked.

"You forget that I was actually a hunter for a while. I couldn't talk to any fellow hunters without hearing about the Winchesters. They're… hunting royalty. It's a pleasure to meet you." Alaric said, holding his hand out to shake.

"The pleasure is ours." Dean said, shaking Alaric's hand with a smile.

As much as she didn't want to come back to Mystic Falls, Elena couldn't help but allow a slow smile to spread across her face at her two worlds, her past and her present, converging gracefully. When she finally let herself really breath for the first time since she caught sight of the Mystic Falls sign, she realized that her head was pounding with pain. She sighed and pressed her hand to it without thinking, swaying on the spot a bit.

"Elena?" Jeremy questioned, catching her and leading her to a seat.

"I think I hit my head on that car door harder than I thought." She sighed, looking up at Dean.

"I'm gonna kill Cas." He said gruffly, bringing another few pieces of gauze to her to staunch the bleeding once more.

"Cas?" Alaric questioned, looking confused.

"That is a long story." Elena said instantly, not sure she wanted her brother and her former guardian knowing the shitstorm she'd willingly volunteered for.

Because if they knew that she was putting her life in danger every day by hunting with the brothers, they would want her to stay in Mystic Falls and that was something she didn't plan on doing even though she was happy to be back after a few months of being away. Alaric had to have a suspicion about it since he knew exactly

"Elena, this is bad. I think we need to get you to the hospital for stiches." Jeremy said, peering at the wound.

"I'm not going to the hospital, Jeremy. I know this town and I know the little rumors and whispers that swirled around as soon as I left. I'm not going to give those vultures any more to talk about by showing up at the hospital with a bleeding head wound." She huffed, taking the Aspirin that Alaric handed her with a grateful smile.

"He's right, 'Lena. It's pretty bad." Sam agreed, looking worried.

She glared at the four males and got an idea. If they were going to freak out about it so badly, she needed a way to get rid of it and if she couldn't heal herself without getting a lot of questions or call Cas without getting even more questions, she would have to deal with the next best alternative.

* * *

She was seated in the living room holding an icepack wrapped in a towel when she heard the door slam open.

"Where is she? I am going to kill her and or hug her! I'm not sure which!" the familiar voice demanded, making her smile.

"In the living room." Jeremy laughed from the entryway.

Elena watched as a blur of blonde hair appeared in the living room and grabbed her into a hug, practically lifting her off of the couch.

"Hey, Caroline." She gasped, hugging her back with a grin.

"Do you even know how much freaking out we've been doing with you gone?" she demanded, plopping on the couch next to her.

"I know. But I'm obviously here and safe. And I've been doing good." She said, smiling at her friend.

Caroline huffed and stared at her for a moment before her eyes went to her forehead.

"What the hell happened? Is Damon here? Did he do that to you?" Caroline asked, glaring around with a viscous stare that could probably scare even Castiel.

Her eyes fell on Sam and Dean who were sitting with Alaric sharing hunter experiences and fascinating him with their numerous stories.

"Oh." She said, causing their eyes to fall on her.

"Caroline, this is Sam and Dean. Guys, this is Caroline." She said, gesturing between them.

"Oh I see why you left us. I would have done the same if I was with these two." Caroline said with a wicked grin.

Elena blushed furiously and stood, grabbing her friend's hand.

"We'll be back." she said, dragging Caroline out of the room and to the stairs.

"Give me the details!" the blonde demanded as they stomped up the stairs.

"In a second!" Elena hissed.

They went to her room and Elena opened the door, sighing when she saw that it still looked the exact same. Then she went to her bed and sat on it.

"I need to tell you something. Something that I haven't been able to tell anyone, and by that I mean Sam and Dean, who I will explain in a second…" she said, holding her hand up as Caroline opened her mouth to question the presence of the men.

"… but I need to tell you this first. I don't think I'm human." Elena said.

"Well we knew that, Miss doppelganger." Caroline said with a roll of her eyes.

"No I mean, in another way. I think that I'm something else. I don't know what." Elena said.

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked hesitantly.

"Here, give me your hands." Elena said, grabbing Caroline's hands.

She didn't know if this would work. The last time she'd healed someone when her and Dean were in 1973, she'd been apparently channeling Castiel's strength. Now, she had a vampire in front of her with plenty of strength to spare. Her eyes fluttered closed and she concentrated heavily.

"Elena?" Caroline questioned.

"Be quiet for a minute." She instructed her friend.

When she felt the warm tingling feeling rushing through her, she let a smile bloom onto her face. It suddenly became concentrated on her forehead and Caroline gasped. When Elena opened her eyes, she turned to look in the mirror. Her wound was completely healed; the blood still dried onto her forehead the only sign that it was ever there.

"That's what I mean." She said, looking back at her friend warily.

"What the hell, Elena?" Caroline screeched, looking panicked.

To calm her, Elena launched into an explanation of what had been happening over the last few months. She didn't leave a single detail out, explaining everything. It felt absolutely amazing to actually be talking to someone who wasn't there to see everything happen. She left out the parts where her and Dean kissed… multiple times. That was a story for later. When she finished, she looked at Caroline with an expectant expression.

"That… is… wow." Caroline breathed, her eyes wide.

"I know." Elena nodded.

"I mean really, wow." The blonde repeated.

"Mm-hm." she agreed.

"So you're what, some kind of badass hunter chick now?" Caroline asked.

"I'm semi-good at it. I usually end up doing a little bit of damage while waiting for Sam and Dean to do the real work. They kind of won't let me do a lot of stuff sometimes." She said.

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Angels? Really?" Caroline questioned.

"Yeah." Elena said, nodding.

"I don't know, Elena. This sounds like a freaking Grimm brothers fairy tale. All twisted and shit." Caroline breathed.

"You're a vampire, Caroline. You really trying to say that **this** is too unbelievable when you have fangs?" Elena deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Low blow." Caroline nodded.

Then a wicked grin slowly spreaded across her face.

"So which one of those hunter hunks down there is yours?" she asked suggestively, her eyes sparkling mischievously.

Elena felt her cheeks flushing with color and she looked away, biting her lip.

"Oh my God, Elena! I was just teasing! Tell me!" Caroline squealed, grabbing her hands as she did a happy dance on the bed.

"It's not really much of anything… just… kissing." She said softly, looking up at Elena to see a huge, shining smile on her face.

"Tell me!" she demanded again.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. They looked to see Dean standing there. Elena flushed as he peeked into her room.

"Well I hate to tell you this, but I think that your presence has been announced in Mystic Falls. Someone saw you walking up to the house and word has quickly traveled back to a place called the Grill where that Damon guy heard about it.

"Ugh." Elena and Caroline both groaned.

"Yeah." He said, sounding like he felt sorry for Elena.

"Come on." Elena sighed, taking Caroline's hand and turning to walk out of the room.

"Excuse me, can I steal her for a moment?" Dean asked, touching Elena's elbow as if to stop her.

Caroline narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Of course you can, gorgeous." She said with a grin, turning to walk out.

When she was out of eyesight, Elena turned to Dean. He reached down and stroked her cheek softly.

"I'm sorry for the vampire nest and the head wound and for bringing you back here when I should have known better." he said softly.

"It's ok." Elena said, smiling up at him.

"Speaking of, uh, how is it gone?" he asked, gesturing to it.

"Vampires have certain… abilities." She said, trying to think of the best way to say it even if it was a lie.

"I don't want to know." He said, shaking his head and shuddering.

"Good, because I didn't want to explain it." she said, patting his shoulder before she turned to walk away from him.

His arm wrapped around her waist and pull her into her room.

"Dean! What are you doing?" she giggled as they stood in the center of it and he looked around.

"This is it, huh? The room you grew up in?" he asked.

"From the time I was born." She nodded, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as he held her.

"Hmm… it's beautiful." He said, grinning down at her.

"Beautiful?" she questioned, looking around the pretty average room doubtfully.

"Oh I'm sorry, I meant you. You're beautiful." Dean shrugged.

Elena laughed, shaking her head.

"Very smooth." She allowed him.

"Did it work?" he replied, winking at her.

"Maybe." She shrugged, giggling as he pulled her up to capture her lips.

They only kissed for a few moments before they heard Jeremy calling her name from the bottom of the stairs.

"Come on." she murmured, placing one last kiss on his lips before turning to walk out of the room with his hand in hers.

When they arrived downstairs, their hand holding having ended when they reached the bottom, Alaric looked at Elena with a sympathic expression as they walked into the living room.

"How long do you think I have until he gets here?" Elena asked with a resigned tone.

"About a minute." He answered.

She groaned and looked at Dean and Sam.

"I am so sorry." She apologized in advance.

"What's going on?" Dean asked, taking on his guarded hunter face.

Sam easily slipped into it as well and she could see his hand itching to snatch the gun out of the back of his jeans.

"Damon." Elena, Caroline, Alaric, and Jeremy groaned at once.

"Okay before I ask about that, how the hell is your head healed?" Sam asked, looking confused.

Before Elena could answer, her eyes widened when she heard the telltale sound of Damon's car pulling up.

"I'll intercept." Caroline said, turning to walk to the front door.

"Should we help?" Sam asked, looking hesitant at everyone's reaction to the simple sound of a car.

"Remember how I told you one of my friends was a vampire?" Elena reminded them.

They nodded in sync.

"Caroline." She said before pulling open one of the cabinets in the entertainment center to reveal a weapons stash.

"Do you think that's necessary?" Alaric asked, kneeling next to her.

"You do realize this is Damon we're talking about. How many times has he tried to kill you?" she asked, raising her eyebrow at him.

"Fair enough." He nodded.

Elena pulled out three vervain darts and tossed two of them to Sam and a gun with wooden bullets to Dean.

"Only use them if necessary. Somewhere near his heart is preferable because it'll knock him out faster." She said, gripping her own dart tightly.

"You think this Damon guy is going to attack us?" Sam asked.

"I think that I've never been able to predict what the hell Damon is going to do." She said.

As if to prove her point, the front door slammed open. Jeremy was armed with a crossbow and Alaric had another gun with wooden bullets in one hand and a vervain grenade in the other.

"Out of the way, vampire Barbie." He said.

"Not until you calm the hell down, Damon." Caroline said stubbornly.

They heard a crash and Elena, knowing that Damon was stronger than Caroline, charged forward to help her without really thinking. When Damon appeared in front of her, she sighed and stopped, glaring up at him.

"Caroline had better be all in one piece." She warned him.

"Who the hell are these dicks?" he demanded, ignoring her question as he walked towards her with a furious expression.

She saw that his eyes were trained on Dean and Sam.

"Damon stop." She said, walking forward.

She didn't expect for him to blur up to her and grab her wrist, knocking the vervain dart out of her hand.

"You want to tell me where the hell you've been?" he demanded, getting right up in her face.

"Let me go, Damon!" she exclaimed, struggling to get out of his grip.

"Not until you give me an explanation, Elena." he said, his eyes widening dramatically as he spoke.

Elena heard someone approaching them but she didn't give them a chance to attack Damon. She stilled for a moment before slamming her foot into his leg and then her knee into his stomach when he bent over out of surprise. When he let go of her wrist, she reared back and punched him, wincing painfully when the bones in her knuckles ground together at the impact. It still sent Damon reeling backwards. Suddenly she was pulled back and a large body stood in front of her.

"Why don't you mess with someone your own size, dick?" Dean growled.

Damon looked at him with a glare, drawing himself back up to his full height.

"Honestly, I'd put more money on Elena." he said, starting forward.

Dean lunged forward to punch him and Elena cried out for him to stop when Damon caught his hand.

"I'm a vampire, dude. You can't be that stupid." Damon said, squeezing Dean's hand easily.

The sickening crunch that she heard made her stomach heave but Dean didn't even grunt in pain. She did hear something clatter to the ground and she reached down for the gun that Dean dropped. She heard Sam coming up behind them and held out her hand to stop him as she picked it up, aiming it at Damon, who wasn't paying attention to her. She fired the first shot into his arm, causing him to let go of Dean, who stumbled backwards cradling his now broken hand. She didn't stop, her anger and need to retaliate against him for hurting Dean overriding anything that kept her from hurting him. She fired the second shot into his leg, the third shot into the abdomen, and the fourth into his other arm.

When collapsed to the ground gasping in pain, she stood over him, pressing the gun against his head. Damon looked up at her with shock as if he didn't even recognize her.

"Elena!" Jeremy's voice pulled her out of her stupor and she dropped the gun, stunned as she saw the blood seeping through Damon's clothing.

Then she turned to see Sam trying to get Dean to show him his hand.

"Castiel!" she yelled automatically.

When she heard the telltale flutter of the angel appearing, she heard gasps all around them followed by the twang of Jeremy's crossbow when he fired it.

"Jeremy no!" she cried, watching as it buried itself in Castiel's heart with precision.

Her little brother must have been practicing. Castiel simply looked annoyed as he glanced down at the arrow sticking out of his chest.

"I wish that people would stop trying to kill me. I'd rather not have to get another overcoat." He sighed, pulling it out and dropping it to the floor.

Then he surveyed the scene around him with a furrowed brow. When he caught sight of Dean cradling his hand to his chest, he walked over to him with an outstretched hand as he suddenly understood why Elena called him. Elena, for her part, grabbed her vervain dart off of the ground and stuck it into Damon unapologetically before he could protest, causing him to collapse on the ground within moments unconscious. She looked back to see that Dean was healed. When she heard footsteps behind her, she knew that Caroline had been roused from whatever Damon did to her.

"Dick." The blonde said, throwing a disgusted look at Damon.

"So which one of you hunter boys kicked Damon's ass?" she asked, taking the presence of Castiel before raising an eyebrow at Dean and Sam as she threw an arm around Elena's shoulders.

"Neither of us." Dean said, shaking his head.

"It was Elena." Jeremy said with shock, his eyes wide as he didn't take his eyes of Cas.

Caroline looked at her with surprise.

"Hey Elena, I think you need to explain a few things." Alaric said, also staring at the angel with a guarded expression.

"First, we need to call Bonnie because Damon is going to wake up soon and we can't keep sticking vervain darts in him and shooting him." Elena sighed, rubbing her head.

"I'm on it." Caroline said, pulling out her phone.

Elena walked to Dean and held her hand out. He put his previously shattered hand in hers and she massaged it softly.

"Any pain?" she murmured, looking up at him with concerned eyes.

"Nope, Cas fixed it up good." He nodded gratefully at the angel, who looked befuddled as this was the first time he'd heard his nickname used though they used it all the time when he wasn't around.

"I'm sorry." She said softly, feeling terrible that Damon did that to him.

"It's not your fault, 'Lena." He said, leaning forward to kiss her forehead.

She heard a soft 'aw' behind her and knew that Caroline knew exactly which brother she was quite attached too, even though she was still attached to Sam. She turned to the younger Winchester and smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry you two got dragged here. I wish that I could say that was all the drama we'll experience but I think I'd be lying." she said, reaching out to take his hand as well.

Suddenly, the people who had previously been closest to Elena all felt as though they were intruding on an extremely personal moment for her and the brothers, as if they were the outsiders witnessing a moment between a family of sorts.

"Don't blame yourself, 'Lena. Dean's right, it's not your fault. Anyways, we're doing good while we're here, so that's good." Sam nodded, squeezing her hand.

She smiled at them both.

"Bonnie is on her way. She doesn't know that you're here." Caroline said as she walked back into the room.

"Why not?" Elena asked, looking at her with a confused look.

"Because I didn't tell her. I just told her that Damon was being an asshole and she jumped right in her car to come on over. I think she enjoys giving this guy pain more than she should." She said, nudging the unconscious Damon with her foot.

"Elena…" Cas said, causing her to turn to him.

"I am very sorry for the car incident. I was not aware that I would be called in as you were sleeping on me. I recognize that you looked quite comfortable and I was hesitant to move you which is why I allowed you to sleep on me for five hours. You were also quite resistant to all attempts to move you." He said, his words making Elena blush darker and darker as he spoke.

"Cas." Dean sighed, shaking his head.

"You slept on the angel?" Caroline questioned.

"What?" Jeremy and Alaric demanded.

"To which part? Me sleeping on someone or the fact that that someone was an angel?" Elena asked, turning to face the two aghast males.

"Let's start with both." Jeremy said.

Elena looked at Sam and Dean for help.

"I apologize, but I cannot remain here for any longer. I am sorry once again, Elena." Cas said before disappearing.

Then she turned back and began to explain certain things to her brother and Alaric, leaving out the parts where she went on hunts with Sam and Dean and sometimes Bobby.

"So you're telling me that an angel, Castiel, has called you to stay with Sam and Dean to… save the world?" Alaric questioned.

"Pretty much, yeah." Elena nodded.

"Elena, these guys are hunters. Their stories are… legendary. So I know what kind of things they get into. So do you want to tell us the story again, this time without the summarization?" Alaric asked.

Elena flushed at getting caught in a sort of lie. When she opened her mouth to speak, the doorbell rang.

"Bonnie shouldn't be here yet." She said, confused as she looked at Caroline.

They both turned to walk to the door, stepping over a still unconscious Damon as they walked out of the living room with the males trailing behind them. When Elena reached out and opened the door, expecting to hug Bonnie, she gasped and stumbled backwards when she saw who it was. Klaus was gripping Bonnie's arm to hold her in place.

"I'm so sorry, Elena." she whimpered, a devastated look on her face.

"Well hello, lovely." Klaus said with a maniacal grin.

* * *

**Author's Note: Please review and tell me how I'm doing with bringing the two universes crashing together. I feel like it might be a bit messy but I'm biased. I'm trying to give Elena/Dean moments together but it's kind of difficult with this chapter. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Dark Alana, LineChokor, slayerdiaries, DrawingMyHeartOut, Thera-Rocklynn, colleenrawr, neontreeslover, Andrienne, chiwi, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, SweetCheeks94, and Beautiful Lie 5105 for reviewing!**

**1. After getting a sense for what you thought, I promise you that Damon will somewhat redeem himself in this chapter. But he's still not going to be best buddies with the Winchesters so don't expect that. **

**2. For the purposes of my story, I'm changing the history of the Originals a bit. Hope you don't mind. Because as much as I'm not writing him great in this story, I do love Klaus.**

**3. READ THIS PLEASE I just want to get a feel for something. How would you feel about a chapter from Cas' point of view?**

**4. This chapter is giving us some much needed closure for Elena/Stefan because I didn't feel like I did it well enough in the other chapter with Stefan.**

* * *

"What are you doing here, Klaus?" Elena demanded, her eyes narrowing at him as she backed away from the door.

He wasn't invited in as far as she knew and he wouldn't kill Bonnie as long as she was his only leverage.

"Don't worry, I did not come to kill anyone." He said, raising his hands up in surrender.

Elena heard a shot ring out from behind her and saw Klaus stumble backwards. His grip loosened on Bonnie and Elena darted forward to grab her and wrench her inside. Once Bonnie was on the other side of the barrier, Klaus glared at them.

"I think you ought to invite me in, Elena." he said in a low, dangerous voice, digging the wooden bullet out of his shoulder.

"I'm pretty sure Cas told you never to come back." Dean said, walking forward to stand next to Elena.

"You know him?" Jeremy asked, confused as they crowded around her.

"They met him in Chicago." Elena said.

"Chicago?" Caroline questioned.

"What are you doing here?" Elena asked Klaus again.

"Why were you in Chicago?" Bonnie asked Elena.

"Why were **you** in Chicago?" Caroline asked Klaus.

"I don't understand what's so important about Chicago." Sam muttered from his place behind Elena and Dean.

"Can everyone just stop talking about Chicago?" Elena demanded, turning to glare at them.

When they were quiet, she turned back to Klaus.

"Why are you here?" she sighed, almost forgetting what she wanted to ask the hybrid in the first place.

He looked as though he would really rather not answer that but he was forced to because he didn't have leverage anymore.

"I need your help." He mumbled.

There was silence for a few minutes as they all stared at him.

"Come again?" Elena said, shocked.

"Elena…" a voice sighed from behind Klaus.

The hybrid's jaw clenched and he looked at Elena with annoyed eyes before shifting out of the way. When she saw the new voice walking up the stairs, hair perfectly in place and his suit clean and sharp looking as always, she let out a sigh of relief. Klaus hadn't figured out a way to re-dagger him, which had been her fear since she did the un-daggering.

"Please excuse my brother's rudeness. But he does need your help." Elijah said, standing at the threshold.

He could have come in but he didn't. Elena stared at him for a moment before looking at Klaus.

"With what?" she asked hesitantly, wanting to trust Elijah but having a hard time since she did not forget that Elijah did betray their agreement by not killing his brother as he promised he would.

"Invite me in and we'll tell you." Klaus said stubbornly.

"No." she snapped, glaring at him.

"How about we meet at neutral ground. That restaurant in the town square?" Elijah asked.

Elena had a burning question that she couldn't help but ask before she agreed to meet them.

"Where is Stefan?" she asked.

Everyone kind of froze at her question. Even Klaus and Elijah didn't say a word.

"Hello?" she said, looking around at everyone trying to get an answer.

Sam was silent because he knew how devastated she was when they left Chicago and she left her life with Stefan forever. Dean was silent because he didn't like for Elena's ex (who happened to be a vampire) to be brought up in the conversation. The rest were silent because they hadn't told Elena everything.

"Elena, Klaus has been back in town for about a month." Caroline said bluntly.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded of Caroline, Jeremy, and Alaric.

"Because we didn't know that you'd seen him in Chicago and we thought you would freak out and go running again." Jeremy threw in.

Elena stared at him before turning to Klaus again.

"Where is Stefan?" she demanded.

"Well, you see, he went on a little rampage, got himself invited into a sleepover of some of your friends from high school. Their bodies were found scattered around the entire house the other day." Klaus said, shrugging as if to say 'what can you do'.

"And I wonder who we have to blame for that?" Elena snapped, glaring at Klaus without missing a beat.

It didn't surprise her that Stefan did that. She knew he was different from seeing him in Chicago.

"You still aren't answering my question." She said, looking around at everyone except for Sam and Dean.

"Well you see, Elena, Bonnie conjured up some witchy stuff and let's just say Stefan has made himself comfortable in the cellar of the boarding house." Damon said, smirking as he walked into the entryway.

His face changed into a glare when he caught sight of Sam and Dean hovering near Elena. When he started towards them, Elena moved into a protective stance, grabbing the vervain dart that Sam was holding.

"Let's not do this again, Damon, before I kick your ass again." She warned.

"You took me by surprise the first time, Elena. Let's not pretend like you could do it again." Damon scoffed, continuing on his path.

Elena watched as he was slammed into the wall with Elijah's hand wrapped around his throat. Dean and Sam's eyes widened when they saw how fast the Original vampire moved to intercept Damon. Elena walked forward to stand next to Elijah, peering up at Damon.

"If I said the word, Elijah would have your heart in his hand…" she said softly, leaving that hanging in the air.

Both Damon and Elijah's eyes widened slightly as they were the only ones who heard her. Elena's hand reached up and slowly touched Elijah's, pulling it away from Damon's throat. He moved away slowly as she moved in front of Damon. She looked up at him and he stared down at her.

"… but I still care about you. Damon I know that you don't like what's happening because you don't have any control over it. You don't have control over my life and you don't have control over what's going on with Stefan or the Originals. But I know that somewhere… deep… really deep… inside, you have hidden that man that I saw when you were dying of werewolf venom. You were kind and you were… human." She said, taking his hand as she stood in front of him.

His eyes darted away from her and she knew that he would rather forget about what he went through when he thought he was dying.

"I was dying, Elena. Of course I would try to redeem myself." He said, his words convincing her about as much as they were convincing him.

"I don't believe that, Damon. You have the ability to be good and I know it. So stop being an asshole. I'm sorry that I attacked you but if I had to do it all again, if I was watching you crushing Dean's hand, understand that I would do it all the exact same way." she said.

"You've changed, Elena." he said, a hint of hurt in his voice.

She looked back at Dean and Sam, who had no idea what they were saying.

"I have." She agreed before turning back to him.

"I'm not the same girl. I'm not innocent little Elena Gilbert who allows herself to be the damsel in distress."

He stared at her for a moment.

"I'll stop attacking your boy toys… for now." He allowed.

She smiled gratefully and backed away. Then she walked back to the door to see Klaus standing there with annoyance exuding from him.

"We'll meet you at the Grill tonight at six. It's a neutral spot. If you want our help, that is how it happens." she offered.

He stared up at her, his bright blue eyes flashing angrily at being told what will happen.

"Deal." Klaus said finally.

"Great. See you then." She said before slamming the door in his face.

* * *

Walking in as one large group to the Grill seemed strange enough without the people staring. But when they recognized Elena and most of the people that made up her posse, they stared and whispered amongst themselves. She immediately spotted Elijah and Klaus sitting at the bar with an unknown blonde girl sitting next to them.

"Oh yeah, that's Rebekah." Caroline whispered.

"Rebekah?" Elena questioned, looking at her with confusion.

"Barbie Klaus, the bitch is insane." Damon threw in as he walked up to the bar and immediately ordered bourbon along with Alaric.

"That's Klaus' sister?" she asked Caroline, who nodded.

She sighed and followed them, catching the blonde girl's eyes as they walked up to the bar. Rebekah smirked and she could easily see the resemblance. When she got up and walked over to them, Elena didn't even flinch.

"I'm offended Damon. Here I thought you liked me." Rebekah said, looking over at the dark haired vampire.

"I never even made it seem like I like you, Rebekah." he scoffed

"So you're the Petrova doppelganger?" she said, circling Elena.

"I'm Elena Gilbert and I'm not a piece of meat to be circled like prey." Elena snapped, glaring at her.

"Says who? The original was much prettier." Rebekah said, reaching out to stroke Elena's hair.

"Back off Rebekah." Klaus said as he came up behind them.

The blonde flashed a grin at Elena before drifting off to stand by Elijah.

"Ignore her. She's a petty little thing." Klaus said, smirking at her.

"Let's just get this over with." Elena sighed.

"Of course, choose your stage." He said, gesturing around the restaurant for her to choose a place to sit.

"Let's play pool." She said.

When she began descending the steps towards the pool table area, she turned to make sure two certain people were following her. When her eyes met with Dean and Sam, they nodded as if to say that they were coming before walking towards her. She quickly picked her cue and turned to Klaus.

"You really want to play pool." He said with a surprised smile.

"What can I say? I'm nothing if not competitive. And we need to act natural so that people don't wonder even more what the hell Elena Gilbert is doing back in town and why she is with a group of people they've never even seen before." she said, glancing around the restaurant where everyone was staring at them.

"Fair enough." Klaus said, picking out his own cue as Elena arranged the table.

"You can break. I'll take solids." She said.

"Ladies first." He retorted, gesturing to the table.

"What do you need help with?" she asked as she bent over the table and began the game.

"To explain that, I'll need to give you a bit of background. On the Original witch." He said, leaning against the table casually as she lined up her cue.

The ball flew into the pocket with precision. Elena felt the eyes of the entire group on them as they circled the table.

"Then by all means…" she said, missing the mark this time and gesturing for him to go.

"You know that the Original witch was the one who put the curse on me in the first place." Klaus said.

"Yes, I do." Elena said, watching as he sunk the ball into the pocket.

"Did you know that she was also our mother?" Rebekah asked, walking up to lean against the table.

Elena gaped at them for a moment.

"No, I didn't." she admitted.

"Tsk. Elijah didn't fill you in on everything did he?" Klaus said mockingly, looking back at his brother.

Elena shook her head with annoyance as he missed the pocket and it was her turn.

"It was my mother. Once she did so, I think that everyone, including my siblings, expected me to kill her out of rage." Klaus said.

"That is true, we did." Rebekah confirmed.

"But I knew that I needed to keep her around for the purpose of breaking the curse at some point. Unfortunately, my father needed to be rid of her so that I didn't get a chance to do so. It helped that he no longer loved her after finding out that she had an affair with a werewolf and that I wasn't his son. So when he ripped her heart out, I was beyond furious. He disappeared soon afterwards. Luckily, I got the witch, Ayanna, to preserve my mother's body. You know Ayanna, Bonnie. Or at least you've drawn your power from her." Klaus said, turning to look at the witch, who narrowed her eyes at him.

"Get on with it, Klaus." Bonnie sighed, refusing to be drawn into his bait.

"Fine. So I kept her around hoping to one-day figure out how to revive her so that I could perform the ritual to break the curse. But then I figured out how to do it myself and obviously had no use for her body anymore. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, her body remained untarnished. Ayanna preserved her body too well. It then became clear that the witch did not preserve her so that she would help me break the curse in the future, but so that she would one day rise and fix the wrongs that she committed." Klaus said.

"Wrongs?" Elena asked.

"Klaus left something out. Not only was our mother the one who put the curse on him. She was the witch who created vampirism. We imagine that after being punished by it for a thousand years, our dear mother will probably be willing to fix what she broke." Elijah said.

"Fix? Vampires?" Elena asked, unsure of how this could happen.

Klaus grimaced and she knew that there was more to it than fixing the species itself.

"Not fix vampires. Get rid of them." He said.

Elena laughed and shook her head.

"She would have to spend a thousand more years hunting down every vampire on the planet." She said.

"Not if there's a fail safe." Rebekah suggested.

Elena stopped playing and stared at them.

"Is there a fail safe?" she asked.

"There is a legend that if an Original dies, every single vampire that he or she made dies as well as the vampires they made and the vampires they made. Of course, we haven't exactly been willing to test it out." Elijah said.

"It would take out the entire family tree." She sighed.

The three Originals nodded. Despite the horrible consequences of the decisions, it was a pretty genius plan. Elena, instead of continuing to talk to them, turned to the Winchesters, who were looking stunned by the conversation.

"A thousand year old witch rising from the dead and wiping out an entire species, you think that sounds like a seal to be broken?"

Realization dawned on both of their faces.

"That's what I thought." She murmured.

"What the hell is a seal?" Damon scoffed.

"Nothing." Elena said, not wanting to explain it to them.

"Does it have something to do with that angel of yours?" Klaus said, smirking at her.

"It has something to do with Lucifer." She said plainly, staring at him.

His smirk immediately fell and he looked shocked.

"I know it's hard to imagine someone who is even worse than you but, judging by the look on your face, you're like a fluffy puppy compared to the devil. So I'm guessing you don't want him to rise out of his little cage." She said, leaning forward on her cue.

"His minions are bad enough. Why would I want to see him rise?" Klaus growled.

"Then it would seem to me, Klaus, that we're on the same side this time." she said.

Neither of them was under the impression that this sudden unity was without conditions.

"What do you want?" he asked, leaning forward as well.

"In exchange for your full cooperation with whatever myself and my friends decide to do?" She confirmed.

"Yes." He sighed.

Her face became deadly serious and she stared at him.

"Fix Stefan." She said.

Klaus narrowed his eyes at her.

"And what if I said no?" he asked.

"Did you already forget that I have an angel on speed dial?" she shot back, narrowing her eyes back at him.

She knew by the look in his eyes that she'd won. Klaus held his hand out hesitantly. Before she shook his hand, Elena looked over at Elijah.

"You broke our last agreement. I know that must have been difficult with you. I still believe that you are an honorable man, Elijah. So tell me, when I make this deal with your brother, can I trust him to keep this deal?" she asked.

He nodded solemnly. Elena turned back to Klaus and hesitantly shook his hand. She may not have made a deal with the literal devil, but she felt as though she'd gotten close enough. When she turned back to Sam and Dean, they looked hesitant.

"We need Bobby." Elena said.

"I'm on it." Sam said, pulling his phone out.

"Who the hell is Bobby? What the hell is going on?" Damon demanded.

"We're helping the Originals and the rest of the entire race of vampires to stay alive. So go take Klaus to the boarding house so that he can fix Stefan." Elena suggested.

"We don't need his help fixing him." the elder Salvatore scoffed.

"Would you just stop being so damn stubborn and do it? Trust me when I say that we will need all hands on deck for this, and that includes Stefan." She said, glaring at him.

Damon grumbled and turned to walk out with Klaus and Alaric hot on his heels.

"Don't you love being little miss 'save the day'?" Rebekah said, breezing by Elena.

"It's better than being 'bitch of the day'." Elena shot back, glaring at the back of her head.

* * *

After figuring out that it was probably best that Stefan not show up at the Grill after being awoken from a haze of bloodlust, everyone went back to Elena's house. While she was tempted to leave the bitchy blonde Original outside, she left it up to Jeremy to invite her in. The symbolism was not lost on anyone. She wouldn't be there to experience any consequences of Rebekah being invited in. They now knew that Elena did not plan on staying in Mystic Falls. God help everyone when Damon figured it out.

They were all gathered in the living room just waiting. Elijah and Rebekah were leaning against the wall separated from the group. Sam and Dean were seated on the couch spread out and Elena was at Dean's feet with Caroline and Bonnie sitting with her. Jeremy was sitting in the armchair talking to Sam and Dean about hunting. Rebekah and Elijah looked vaguely interested in the subject. To keep her mind off of the fact that her vampire ripper ex-boyfriend was about to show up, Elena kept braiding and unbraiding her hair in different braids all over her head. Then she would pull it up and let it back down, twisting it into a bun and then putting it in pigtails. Finally, as she was lifting her hands to yank it down again after putting it into a messy topknot, Dean reached down and caught her hands.

She looked over her shoulder at him as he looked at her worredly.

"You ok?" he mouthed.

"Not really." She replied silently before leaning back and folding her hands in her lap, letting her head fall back and her eyes close.

It was no less than an hour later that multiple things happened at once. First, Sam's phone rang with a call from Bobby and he excused himself out of the room to talk to him. Second, the unmistakable sound of Damon's car caused all of them to freeze where they were sitting. She heard footsteps walking up the steps and stood slowly and shakily. She would have to, unfortunately, invite Klaus in. She felt them following her as she walked numbly to the entryway. When the front door opened and Alaric walked in, she sighed with relief at seeing him unscathed.

Then Damon walked in looking exhausted but satisfied. When she looked at him hopefully, he nodded and turned to face the door. Stefan himself walked in slowly, his hands clenched into fists as he examined the entryway before turning to face him. When he caught sight of Elena, his entire body relaxed and he started forward.

"Elena." he sighed, sounding relieved.

She staggered away and felt herself bump into a hard but warm chest as she did so. It was an automatic response, not something she did on purpose. Hurt flashed on Stefan's face but there was resignation there as well. He knew. Elena had to wonder what Damon told him.

"Jer, can you invite Klaus in before he starts attacking the rose bushes?" she asked softly, not moving away from Dean's warmth.

"Elena I am so sorry." Stefan said pleadingly.

"I know you are." She nodded.

"You had to know I wasn't myself."

"No, you weren't. You weren't the person I fell in love with. But you're still not that person." Elena said hesitantly, not wanting to set him off.

"Elena…" he began.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that you still love me." she said, not even flinching as Klaus walked into her old home.

"I do. I do love you, Elena." he said sadly.

There was a tragic sound to his voice and she knew there was more to that.

"Okay. Look me in the eyes and tell me you're **in** love with me." she amended, stepping forward.

This time he didn't answer so quickly.

"I…" he began.

Elena sighed and stepped forward all the way, wrapping her arms around him. He seemed shocked for a moment before mimicking her actions.

"We were epic. But epic doesn't always mean forever." She murmured.

He sighed and hugged her as tightly as he dared.

"You're right." he agreed.

"For the record, Stefan, I still love you too. But I'm not in love with either." Elena said, pulling away from him.

"I know." He said.

She looked past him to Klaus and her eyes narrowed slightly but she took a deep breath.

"Thank you for actually fixing Stefan." She said, pained to thanking the hybrid who killed her aunt.

"You are very welcome. Now about the deal…" he said.

Elena was drained emotionally, physically, and mentally. She had no more room to deal with anything else that day. So of course, Sam chose that moment to walk into the room.

"That was Bobby. He's figured out a few things but not quite everything yet. First of all, we need a really powerful witch?" Sam asked.

They all turned to Bonnie and she shook her head.

"I'm out of juice after that resurrection spell for Jeremy. The dead witches cut me off." she said.

"That's a creepy statement." Dean informed her.

"I'll call one of my witches." Klaus said, pulling out his phone.

"And we need the blood of all of the children of the Original witch." Sam said.

Rebekah and Elijah looked at Klaus expectantly, who froze.

"Why?" he demanded.

"Because we do." Sam said back easily, obviously not scared by Klaus' scared demeanor.

"Nik, you know what you're going to have to do. You can't take blood from a desecrated, dried out body." Rebekah sighed.

"Well pardon me if I don't want to raise my two brothers whom I know will want to kill me." Klaus snapped.

"How is that any different from every other creature on this planet?" Damon asked snarkily.

"I will accompany you, brother, to keep our other two brothers calm." Elijah said, walking with Klaus out of the house.

Elena sighed. Just what they needed, two more Originals added to the mix.

* * *

Elena sighed as she walked out of the house and onto the front porch. It was overwhelming and now she just managed to escape. Her old friends and family knew well the old Elena well enough to think that she wanted to be alone. Dean and Sam knew the new Elena well enough to know that she never wanted to be alone anymore. So she only had to wait about a minute until they walked outside. When she turned to see their concerned faces, she felt a lump forming in her throat and tears burning her eyes. Apparently they could immediately tell because they rushed forward and sandwiched her between them. She let out a soft sob and sagged in their arms, clutching both of them for dear life.

"When I first got here, I was a little happy to be here. Seeing Caroline and Alaric and Jer was good and I was happy. But now…" she was cut off by a heaving sob as the tears began flowing down her face.

"Now I just want to go home. I want to be back in Sioux Falls or in some shitty motel with just the two of you or Bobby. I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to deal with Klaus or his bitchy sister I don't want to deal with an old witch. I just want to leave." she cried softly so that no one inside would hear her.

They didn't say anything as she cried, both just holding her. It was remarkable to her, the change she'd experienced. Damon wasn't wrong. She was totally different. Before, she felt safe in the boarding house with the Salvatores vowing to protect her. Now, that was the last thing she wanted. This is where she felt safe, with the Winchesters. They weren't a danger to her. There was never a chance that they would hurt her unless they were possessed or something, which was impossible because of their tattoos.

The door opened and Bonnie and Caroline stepped outside, most likely finally figuring they maybe should have followed their best friend outside. Elena looked up to see them staring at her with concern. Instead of launching into their arms, as she would have before she ever left Mystic Falls, she turned and buried her face in Dean's chest, taking Sam's hand in hers as she did so. The two girls looked on with wide eyes as she cried into Dean's shirt, not even bothering to remain quiet now that Caroline and Bonnie found her out. Unfortunately, her heavy wails drew a crowd outside and she heard Damon began speaking angrily.

"What did you do to her, dick? She was fine when she walked out." Damon demanded of Dean.

"Really? Because from what I could see, she was falling apart." Dean shot back, still holding onto Elena.

"You had to have said something to her." Stefan jumped in.

"Guys, leave them alone." She said Caroline say to the Salvatores.

"Just stop!" Elena cried, turning her head to face the crowd of her old group of people.

"I don't want you fighting over me! I hated it when I lived here and I hate it even more now! So stop! Dean and Sam did nothing to warrant your anger so just leave them alone!" she demanded, her hands clutching at Dean and Sam's hands as she stepped forward and out of Dean's comfortable embrace.

"Elena…" Stefan began, looking sufficiently embarrassed.

"I don't want to hear it Stefan. It's to be expected from Damon but you should be better." She sighed, shaking her head.

Then she turned to Sam and Dean.

"Get me out of here for a while?" she asked pleadingly.

"Gladly." They agreed at the same time.

Everyone tried to stop her as they walked off the porch but she ignored them, assuring them that they would be back soon. She smiled up at Sam gratefully when he opened the door for her and she clambered into the backseat. Finally she was getting some relief from the tense atmosphere.

"Thank you." she murmured, letting her head fall on the back of the front seat between Dean and Sam.

* * *

**Author's Note: There you go. I know that I didn't show much of ripper Stefan's transformation back to regular Stefan but there are only so many things that I can concentrate on in this fic and that was not one of them. So Stefan is back to being normal and Elena is actually (gasp) willingly working with Klaus. Next up, we are introduced to Kol and Finn and the actual plan is established to stop Esther before she starts. Sorry this wasn't as long as usual but I have been rather busy.**

**REVIEW PLEASE!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Raven176, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, neontreeslover, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, Beautiful Lie 5105, Dark Alana, LineChokor, Chung60988, chiwi, slayerdiaries, DrawingMyHeartOut, Meowgli, Andrienne, and arizonagirl181 for reviewing! Love all of you and my readers!**

**A few things (PLEASE READ THERE IS IMPORTANT STUFF IN HERE):**

**1. Get ready to see Elena come up with a badass plan to take care of an unexpected threat**

**2. Someone finds out about Dean and Elena**

**3. Only one person got back to me on the Castiel thing. Tell me please if you want me to do a chapter from his point of view!**

* * *

After giving Dean directions, she climbed out of the car and looked out at the surrounding area that was the go to place for the Mystic Falls parties. It was insane how many things happened since that very first party with Stefan where Vicki Donovan got attacked. Elena sometimes wondered whether or not she would rather go back to that naïve girl who had no idea that there are two different kinds of vampires or that shapeshifters are killed with silver bullets or that ghosts are vulnerable to salt and iron. Part of her thought that she would say yes only if she could have her parents back. But when she heard the two brothers coming up behind her, she reconsidered that decision.

When Stefan came into her life she needed someone. He was the closest person and he was handsome and so kind. Elena truly believed that she'd fallen in love with him at the beginning. Even after finding out he was a vampire, her feelings for him grew. But she'd never seen Stefan lose control until the Miss Mystic Falls banquet. Sure, she'd seen the horrible things Damon did but he chose to do them. He had a measure of control over his bloodlust. It was different with Stefan. It was terrifying and it was in that moment, at that party, that Elena realized that vampires really were dangerous. It had been so easy to trick her own self into thinking that her and Stefan would never run across that problem.

She'd never even seen him drinking animal blood so to see him feeding off of that girl was a shock to the system. Knowing that it was her fault made it even worse but looking back, she knew that it really wasn't. Stefan would be dead if she hadn't given him her blood. Frederick would have killed him and then he would have killed her. Elena was almost positive that after that, she began to slowly fall out of love with Stefan. It was horrible of her and she knew that but the reality of the situation struck her. It didn't help that Katherine chose to show up within a few weeks, taunting Elena and trying to get her to back off of Stefan.

Stefan never believed it but for some reason, Elena knew that Katherine had never compelled him to love her. His feelings had been true for Elena's centuries old doppelganger. Knowing that made it more difficult to discern whether he was ever really in love with her or whether his feelings were left over from his relationship with Katherine. Elena never doubted that he did love her just as she still loved him. But from the way things happened at the beginning, she wondered if they just were supposed to fall in love so then it happened and afterwards, reality brought them crashing to earth and they were hit with the startling aftershock. It used to be so easy to be alone with him, they would talk and it would be incredible. But that all came to a screeching halt the moment Katherine showed up in town and she was forced to break up with him. They were never the same after that.

Then the saga of the curse began, starting with Rose and Trevor and coming to a startling conclusion in that meadow in the shadow of the waterfalls. That was when Stefan began second-guessing every decision she made. It wasn't just him, either. It was Damon as well. They questioned her deal with Elijah. They called her stupid for her willingness to sacrifice herself for the ones she loved. Even Jeremy and Alaric questioned her somewhat. They stuck a dagger in Elijah so that her deal with him would end. Luckily enough, when she undaggered him he agreed to a new deal without questioning her and without calling her stupid.

Then Stefan showed up at the sacrifice willing to give himself up for her and she was so angry because they weren't in love anymore. He knew that too. They acted like they were still blindly in love and they were brilliant actors. Elena didn't know if they were acting for the sake of each other or for everyone else in their life. They never truly admitted that their feeling had diminished but it was still something both of them knew when they looked at each other when they were alone. So she had every right to be pissed off that he had to be so selfless and make himself a martyr by agreeing to die for her. If there were one person she would want him to be a martyr for, it was his brother because she knew that they loved each other no matter what they said.

Little did she know, she would unintentionally get her wish. Stefan gave himself up for Damon and Katherine returned with the cure, spouting bullshit about how Elena could love them both. She didn't love them both. Not romantically, anyway. Before that, Damon told her how she would have liked him as he was as a human. She admitted that she did like him then without the sidenote that she liked him when he wasn't acting like a murderous psychopath. Then that had her wondering, would she have liked Stefan when he was human? Then she realized that she had no idea what Stefan was like as a human.

They never talked about it most likely because much of the story included Katherine. So when he disappeared off to God knows where to start a murderous rampage, she found his diaries. They did not make her feel any better. He was a selfless person even back then but Katherine showed up and twisted both him and Damon into forgetting they were brothers and only acting in their own interests. And it took until Stefan gave himself up for the cure for the two to get back to their selfless attitude when it came to the other. 145 years. Katherine screwed them up that badly. Part of Elena hoped that, once Katherine came around and their affair began, his words would change remarkably.

That he would seem like a totally different person because it would prove once and for all that Katherine was compelling him. She was doomed to be disappointed. His words didn't change at all. He was still the same person. He was just in love. Even though it broke her heart to know that she no longer loved Stefan in that way, she continued to search for him through Sheriff Forbes' clues. She didn't know if it was guilt that drove her but she was pretty sure that it was.

Elena suddenly realized that as she thought all of this through, she'd been wandering around the site alone. She looked back and saw Dean and Sam staring at her while leaning against the Impala. She sighed and sat on a log, burying her face in her hands. It would have been much easier if life weren't so damn complicated. But then again, could she really regret all of those complications if, without them, she wouldn't have been led to Sam and Dean? Their presence in her life was arguably the best thing to happen to her in a long time.

It was remarkable that they'd managed to watch her wander around the party site for an entire ten minutes without saying a word or complaining. She was used to people questioning her every move so it was a nice relief from that.

"You can come over here." She said, finally breaking the silence.

She didn't stop staring at the ground but felt them sit on either side of her.

"Can our next hunting trip be on a Caribbean cruise?" she asked, kicking her feet back and forth.

"Do you want to pay for it?" Dean replied, causing her to look up at him to see a smirk on his face.

Elena hated when Damon or Klaus smirked. It made her want to slap the smirk right off of their egotistical faces. But, for some reason, when Dean smirked she found that it made her smile.

"I'm sure Chris P. Bacon could pay for it." she said, a smile finally forming on her face.

"That's what I was looking for." He said softly, pulling her into a side hug.

She let her head fall on his shoulder and, at the same time, reached out to clasp Sam's hand. To anyone else, this action would look strange. But to the three of them, it was completely normal. Elena let her eyes scan the area and smiled fondly.

"This, in case you couldn't tell, is where all the high schoolers sneak off to have parties." She said, gesturing to the remains of red solo cups and beer bottles littered the dirt and grass.

"It has a certain charm to it." Sam said.

"How many times did you get drunk here?" Dean asked, nudging Elena's side.

"More times than I'm willing to admit." She said with a slight chuckle.

Suddenly Sam's phone rang again and he pulled away from them to stand up and answer it.

"Hey Bobby. What else you got?" he asked.

Elena picked up her head to look at Dean.

"Are you okay? I know it's probably not easy for either of you to work alongside vampires when your training is to kill them." She said with concern.

"It's not… too terrible. Although I'm tempted to put more than a few wooden bullets in that Damon guy." Dean said.

"Congratulations, you've joined the extensive 'I want to kill Damon' club." She said, smiling as she thought of just how many people were in that metaphorical club.

"Do you, though?" Dean asked.

She looked at him with surprise at the question.

"Want to kill him? Sometimes. I mean you saw me shoot him… several times." She said, grimacing as she remembered it.

"Yeah but… when that Elijah person pushed him against the wall… none of us could hear what you were saying. And you two were kinda… really… close." Dean said, having trouble getting out the words that he wanted to say.

Elena stared at him for a moment, wondering what he could possibly be saying. Then it clicked and she remembered just how close her and Damon were. A slow smile appeared on her face as he looked down at his hands.

"You're jealous." She murmured, a bit happy with this new piece of information.

"No I'm not." He scoffed.

"Yes you are." She said, giggling slightly.

He looked up at her with an exasperated look.

"I am not jealous, okay? Dean Winchester does not get jealous of other males. They get jealous of him." he said definitively.

"Okay." She said, raising her hands in surrender as he looked back down at his hands that were breaking a branch into very tiny pieces.

"I mean there was… well… Damon and I…" she trailed off, amused as his head snapped up to meet her eyes again.

"Damon and you what?" he growled and she was certain that he was jealous now.

"Well…" she said, acting as though she was contemplating something.

"Yes?" he pushed her, his eyes narrowing.

"There is…" she sighed, looking down at her hands.

His hand reached out and lifted her chin to look into his storming green eyes. She almost got lost and completely forgot about the game they were playing. Well she was playing, she wasn't sure if Dean knew that it was a game.

"There is… what, Elena?" he urged her.

"There is… absolutely nothing going on between me and Damon." She whispered, unable to think about anything but their proximity to each other.

Dean let out a low groan in the bottom of his throat.

"You were trying to get a rise out of me." he said, realizing her game now.

"Did it work?" she said softly, biting her lip as she waited for his answer.

His eyes scanned over her face and a smirk appeared on his face.

"Absolutely." He said before he pressed his lips to hers.

She immediately threw her arms around him and pressed her body to his. It was an awkward position but that didn't stop either of them.

"Whoa." They heard as Sam turned around to see them liplocked.

They slowly pulled away and realized that they completely forgot the younger Winchester was there.

"I think we've been found out." she whispered.

"Yeah." He grumbled, reaching out to stroke her cheek.

They both turned to look at Sam, who looked partly shocked, partly resigned.

"I suspected something but I thought you guys were just flirting." He managed to say.

"Surprise." Elena said with a weak smile.

Sam narrowed his eyes at them.

"Exactly how long has this been going on?" he asked in a fake scolding tone.

"Don't worry, Sam. Dean is still re-hymenated." Elena said, causing Dean to choke and sputter on his own spit.

She'd been saving up the fact that he had no idea that she overheard that conversation for a while now. It was the perfect moment to reveal it. She grinned at him as his face turned red.

"You heard that?" he choked out, staring at her with wide eyes.

"Mm-hm… something about as smooth as a baby's bottom?" she said, stroking his arm softly.

He shivered underneath her touch and she smiled sweetly.

"You guys are freaking me out." Sam informed them.

Elena looked at him with a questioning look.

"Well you're like a little sister to me now and Dean is… Dean." He shrugged.

"Don't worry, Sam. I still love you too." She assured him, standing up to pat him on the arm as Dean recovered from the shock of finding out she knew about his 're-virginization'.

Sam caught her as she moved to pass him and she looked back at him.

"Thank you." he whispered.

"For what?" Elena questioned.

"He's happy now, with you. I already knew something had changed. So thank you." he said, nodding at her.

She smiled at him.

"You make him happy too, Sam, even if he doesn't admit it." she reassured him softly.

Sam looked a little regretful and even guilty but nodded at her.

* * *

When they pulled back up to the house, the boys looked back at her.

"You ready for this?" Dean asked.

They had all the information they needed on how to stop Esther from ever rising. Now they just had to tell everyone how to do it.

"Caribbean cruise." She sighed, closing her eyes to go to her happy place.

"Maybe later but first we have to stop a seal from breaking." Sam said.

She opened her eyes to glare at him.

"Fine. I'm ready." Elena said, sliding out of the car.

They followed her as they walked up to the house. As soon as the door opened, a dark haired, dark eyed man appeared before her. He looked a little bit like Elijah so she assumed this was another Original sibling.

"I just had to see the new doppelganger." He said, grinning like mad.

Before he could take another step, people surrounded her. Dean and Sam were standing on either side of her and Elijah, Damon, and, surprisingly enough, Klaus were standing in front of her.

"Back off, Kol." Klaus said.

"You won't let me have any fun, brother." Kol sighed dramatically, eyeing Elena through the group of people.

"I let you break my neck, brother." Klaus shot back through gritted teeth.

Elena's eyes widened at this. She could not have imagined these siblings growing up together when they took out their anger on each other by breaking their necks. It was also kind of funny so a giggle slipped out of her throat before she could stop it. They all looked at her like she was crazy but she shrugged, letting a smile grace her face.

"It's a little funny to visualize." She said defensively.

"You're far more demented than I ever thought." Damon said, staring at her as if she was another person entirely.

"This is the kind of girl who understands my humor, excuse me gentlemen." Kol said, pushing through them to stand in front of her.

"The name is Kol." He said, bending down to kiss her hand.

All of the males watched as he smirked up at her with a knowing look, as if he thought that she was falling for his charm due to the dazed look on her face. They all waited because obviously this newcomer had no idea how Elena Gilbert worked. Elena snapped out of her shock at the vampire's brazen flirting and stepped forward to look up at him.

"Kol?" she said, sounding out his name.

"Yes, darling?" he said, looking triumphant.

"I'm not impressed." She said in a deadpan voice.

It was her turn to smirk as the conceited look slid off of his face to be replaced with shock. Elena pulled away and nodded triumphantly and took Dean and Sam's hands, dragging them through the group and into the living room. She stopped short when she saw another mysterious man in there. Before she could help it, her body was shaking with laughter and she gripped the Winchester brothers' hands to try to keep the giggles contained. Everyone turned to watch as her face turned red with the effort. When she looked up at Sam and Dean, she could tell that they were having the same problem as her.

"Elena?" Caroline asked worredly, thinking that maybe she was choking or something.

Finally they bursted out of her mouth and she bent over at the waist laughing. As soon as she began laughing, Sam and Dean lost control as well and began laughing too.

"I'm sorry. I really am. But you got the bad end of the deal with this whole daggering thing. I mean, at least flirty over there is wearing semi-normal clothes with a semi-normal haircut. But you look like you're going to a Renaissance fair." She said, wiping her eyes as tears flowed down her cheeks.

Everyone stared at her as she expelled the laughter from her body.

"She's gone insane." Bonnie muttered.

"We all knew it would happen sooner or later." Jeremy said sadly, as if it was a great tragedy.

"What is a Renaissance fair?" the confused new brother asked, looking around at everyone.

Elena's laughter increased and she had to excuse herself out of the room to get it under control.

"Do you think that we should tell her that we all had the same reaction when we saw him?" Caroline questioned, looking around at everyone.

"Nope, let her feel bad for it." Damon said as he walked into the room.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Elena came in with shame written all over her face.

"I'm so sorry." She said solemnly to Finn, who still looked confused.

"Now I'll take you to get some clothes, Finn." Rebekah said, standing up with a triumphant grin.

"Why didn't you get him clothes before?" Elena asked, looking around.

Everyone except for the Winchester brothers, who were still grinning widely at the sight of the ridiculously dressed vampire, averted their eyes from her guiltily. She suddenly realized exactly what they did.

"You wanted me to laugh at him! You kept him in those clothes so that I would laugh at him and embarrass both of us!" she exclaimed.

"To be fair, we all laughed at him as well." Alaric said, smiling at her.

"It gets even funnier when you imagine Klaus in those clothes." Caroline mumbled, looking down at her hands.

As everyone's eyes met, they all knew that they were imagining Klaus with long hair and that clothing. This time, it wasn't just Elena, Sam, and Dean who were laughing. Everyone was laughing except for the Originals. Klaus looked especially murderous as he was not used to anyone making fun of him.

"Wait… wait…" Elena said, shaking her head as she tried to stop laughing.

Everyone looked at her.

"What about Elijah?" she managed to say, looking over at the eldest of the Original siblings.

The noise level of the laughter shot up, even Elijah's brothers and sister laughing at the utterly unamused look on his face. Elena was leaning into Dean as her laughter had taken away her ability to stand up straight. Sam was bent over against the wall wiping at his eyes. Suddenly someone new walked into the room. She had bright red hair and pale skin. She walked straight to Klaus. Her presence made everyone somber immediately when she looked up at Klaus.

"We have a problem." She said, her voice echoing around the suddenly silent room.

* * *

"How the hell is he here?" Klaus hissed, glaring at the witch.

"I don't know. I just got wind of it from other witches." She said, not even trembling underneath his dangerous glare.

Elijah, Rebekah, Kol, and Finn had already run off to try to find the elusive Mikael.

"Who is Mikael?" Caroline whispered to Elena.

"Their father." Elena answered, remembering Elijah mentioning him.

"I want to know where he is and what his plan is!" Klaus snapped to the woman.

"He's a vampire hunter? But he's a vampire. Why does he hunt vampires if he's a vampire?" the blonde said, confused.

Elena's eyes suddenly lit up as Caroline's words gave her an idea.

"Caroline you are a genius." She said, stepping away from her friend.

"Klaus." she said hesitantly, causing him to turn and look at her.

"What is it, Elena?" he said quietly.

She quickly learned that his quiet voice meant that he was the angriest he could possibly be.

"I have an idea." She offered.

He suddenly stopped looking furious and suddenly looked curious.

"And pray tell me, Elena, what your plan is? What possible idea could you have that I have not had before to bring down Mikael? What resources could you possibly hold that I have not had a thousand times over?" he demanded.

Elena put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him.

"If you don't want to hear it, I can leave right now and you can figure out how to deal with him all by your damn self. I hope he stabs your dead heart." She spat.

They glared at each other for a moment before Klaus growled and averted his eyes.

"Tell me." he requested.

She sighed and dropped her arms, not taking her glare off of him.

"You asked me what resources I have? I have them." She said, pointing to Sam and Dean.

Klaus squinted at her.

"I must say, I am at the least curious." He said thoughtfully.

"Just one question, does Mikael know you broke the hybrid curse?" Elena asked, smirking back at him as she crossed her arms.

* * *

It didn't take long for the Original siblings to track Mikael down at, surprise surprise, Mystic Grill. Caroline called Matt and described the guy, telling him to let them know if he left before they could set up for Elena's plan. Luckily, he didn't go anywhere almost as though he was expected to meet someone there. The Winchester brothers would not disappoint him. When they walked into the Grill, they spotted the man who was described to them at the bar drinking a glass of wine. They walked up to it and sat beside him.

"Hey." Dean said, nodding at him.

Mikael ignored him, staring straight at the wall in front of him. Sam cleared his throat and the vampire hunter rolled his eyes and turned to look at them.

"Can I help you?" he said in an annoyed voice.

"Yes you can. You're Mikael, right?" Dean asked, taking the drink he ordered from the bartender.

Mikael's eyes narrowed and he stared between them.

"Who wants to know?" he asked.

"I'm Sam. This is Dean." Sam said, gesturing to him and then his brother.

Mikael just stared at them, blinking once as he was not impressed.

"Winchester." Dean finished off, taking a drink of his bourbon.

The vampire's eyes widened and he put down his wine. The brothers fought grins off of their faces. So far, so good.

"You are the infamous Winchesters. I would say it's an honor to meet you, but I'd be lying. Don't tell me that you boys are here to kill me. I'd hate to waste such talent." Mikael said.

"We're here to offer you a deal." Dean said, downing the rest of his drink before slamming the glass onto the bar.

"A deal." Mikael chuckled, shaking his head.

"We know that you want to kill a vampire by the name of Klaus." Sam said.

Mikael's eyes flashed up to them.

"What do you know of that boy?" he growled.

"We know what he is and what he has the potential to be. A hybrid… that's far too dangerous to have wandering around the streets of our world. We want to exterminate him." Dean said.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" the vampire scoffed.

"Well that's why we came to find you. Rumor is that the infamous Mikael has a weapon that can kill an Original vampire. So tell us, that rumor true?" Dean questioned.

"How is it possible that you've heard of me when my kind has made sure that you hunters have no idea we exist?" Mikael demanded.

"We're the Winchesters." Sam said simply.

Luckily, having heard of their reputation, Mikael took that as a worthy explanation.

"I don't see how any deal with you could possibly help me. If I know anything about that boy, I know that he knows that I'm in town and he's most likely already a hundred miles away."

"Because we have something he wants. Something that could draw him out of hiding even if you are in town." Sam said.

"What's that?" Mikael said, skeptical of their words.

There was nothing that Klaus valued more than his life, everyone knew that.

"The doppelganger." Dean said.

Mikael's eyebrows shot up.

"I heard a rumor that Klaus already broke the curse." He said.

"Well that rumor is wrong. We have the doppelganger alive and well and she would not be in that state if he already broke the curse. If we use her as bait, it could draw him out and you could kill him." Sam said.

"How do I know that you're not double crossing me and there is no such doppelganger in your care?" Mikael questioned, leaning forward.

He was interested in their proposition. He'd taken the bait. Now they just had to reel him in.

"We'll take you to her, if it'll satisfy you. I'm sure that you could recognize the doppelganger considering that you were around when it was created." Dean offered.

Mikael's eyes lit up like it was Christmas but he kept his face blank.

"I suppose that is what will have to happen." Mikael said.

"Meet us at Fell's Church tonight at midnight." Sam said.

"No." Mikael growled, standing up to stop them from leaving.

"No?" Dean questioned.

"You'll take me to her now. I don't want to give you time to set up a big display if you are lying to me. Sorry boys, I don't trust anyone." He said.

They exchanged careful looks and then looked back at Mikael.

"Fine." Dean said.

* * *

They arrived at the ruins of Fell's Church just thirty minutes later. It was peaceful in the woods surrounding them.

"Why have you brought me out here?" Mikael demanded.

"She's underground. This town is infested with vampires who want to keep her safe. We had to hide her someplace they wouldn't find her." Dean said, gesturing to a hidden set of stairs that led underground.

"Very interesting." Mikael said, following them down.

When they were in the circular room with an opening leading into a dark cave, Dean stopped Mikael before he walked through.

"We took all precautions we could. If a vampire walks in there, he never walks out. I wouldn't if I were you." he said, pushing Mikael away.

"You boys are smart. I underestimated you." Mikael said, a hint of respect in his voice.

"Stay here with him, Sammy. I'll go get the girl." Dean said before turning to walk out.

Sam nodded as Dean delved into the darkness with a flashlight he brought. A few moments, they heard a muffled cry and some scuffling. Then Dean came into view slowly, holding the flashlight in one hand and a very dirty teenage girl in the other. Her wrists were bound with a cord and bleeding from where it rubbed against her skin as she tried to break free. A grey-ish cloth was wrapped around her head, acting as a gag to keep her from screaming. Her eyes were big and terrified and she walked with a limp as though she'd been injured.

But underneath all the dirt and grime, Mikael could see the doppelganger. She looked just like the original Petrova. But instead of being the fiery and stubborn girl that he knew Tatia to be, she was a simpering little girl that looked at him with pleading eyes as though he would help her.

"I won't bring her on the other side of the barrier just in case you're waiting to double cross us. I'm sure you understand." Dean said gruffly.

"Of course. This is good enough. Now I'm interested in knowing how you plan on drawing Klaus out." Mikael said.

"It will be easy. The homecoming dance for the local high school is tonight at the Mayor's house after an incident in the school gym. Elena will take us as her dates. We will keep an eye out for Klaus and you will wait outside for us to bring him to you and you will kill him." Sam said.

Mikael looked between him and Dean.

"That plan isn't half bad. I can see why you have the reputation you do. I'm in but with a little change. As soon as Klaus spots the girl, you will bring her to me. I will hold her until you bring Klaus to me. Then I will kill him, compel her to forget everything, and we will all go on our merry way." Mikael said.

"Sounds like a plan." Dean nodded.

"I'll see you tonight, gentlemen." He said before disappearing up the stairs.

They remained still and silent for an entire two minutes before they heard footsteps descending the stairs. Bonnie appeared with a smile.

"He's gone." She whispered.

They all sighed with relief and Dean quickly unraveled the gag from Elena's head and cut the cord trapping her hands together.

"I'm sorry." He murmured, seeing the deep cuts on her wrists.

"Don't be. It was necessary to convince him. I almost can't believe he bought it." Elena whispered, smiling around at them as her and Dean walked out of the old tomb.

"He bought it because it's a genius plan." Sam said, grinning at her.

Elena smiled back and they waited for the next reassurance that Mikael was, in fact, gone. Caroline appeared in front of them moments later with a wide grin.

"He's gone. He bought it." she squealed quietly, launching forward to hug Elena.

"Caroline, can you give Elena some blood? Those cuts on her wrists are pretty bad." Bonnie said, grimacing at them.

The Winchester brothers looked disgusted as they realized that is how vampires could heal people.

"I can't, Bonnie. If Mikael sees that my wrists are healed, he'll wonder where Dean and Sam got the vampire blood and then he'll suspect something. I'll have to go like this and wear a jacket or something." she said, looking at Caroline with stern eyes that told her not to say a word.

"She's right." Caroline agreed.

"Let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps." Dean said, looking back at the tomb before climbing out with the rest of the group.

It was time for them to regroup and let the plan come together.

* * *

Since she didn't have time to get a dress of her own, Elena had to make do with a dress from Caroline's closet. She quickly did her hair and make up as soon as they got back to her house, where everyone else was getting ready as well. Sam and Dean were just going to wearing the suits that they usually wore for their FBI covers. Elena wore a simple dark purple cardigan that matched her shoes over her metallic covered ruched dress. Her hair was thrown up and her make up was done lightly. When she walked downstairs with Caroline and Bonnie, everyone dressed up, including Kol and Finn, who had gotten a haircut from Caroline.

"Are you ready for this?" Klaus asked.

"Ready to act like a damsel in distress, you mean?" she asked, raising her eyebrow at him.

"Well you seem to have become rather bad at being a damsel in distress lately, lovely. If you keep standing up for yourself, you'll lose the ability altogether." He warned her, smirking.

"Thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind." she fired back.

Dean and Sam walked in, fixing their suits and ties. When they looked up at her, their mouths dropped slightly. They'd seen her in normal clothes, they'd seen her covered in blood and other fluids, and they'd seen her in a wedding dress. But they never saw her actually trying to look nice.

"Are you ready to treat me as your prisoner?" she asked, walking up to them.

"Never been more ready, you?" Dean sighed.

She knew that they hated this as much as she did. Even if they were trying to kill Klaus, they would never use a human as bait and put them in danger of being killed themselves. Elena shrugged in reply and turned to the door.

"See you at the dance." She said, waving goodbye to everyone as they left earlier so they would be there when Elena, Dean, and Sam showed up.

They were finally left alone and she turned to them with a sigh.

"Now that they're gone, how are you really feeiing?" he asked.

"I'm scared that this isn't going to work and that it's going to blow up in our faces. I'm scared that one of you two are going to get hurt, or worse, die, if it all goes badly." Elena said honestly.

"First of all, this plan is badass and you should be damn proud of it. It's going to work. Second of all, I have a feeling that if either one of us dies, and this extends to you as well, Cas'll just bring us right back." Dean said with a grin.

She smiled back hesitantly.

"Shall we go to a dance?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow at them.

"Allow us to escort you, Miss Gilbert." Sam said as both brothers held their elbows out.

"Gladly." She agreed.

* * *

When they arrived at the Lockwood mansion, the party was in full swing. Elena arranged her face into an unhappy/distressed/helpless look as they climbed out of the Impala. Dean and Sam stood on either side of her, Dean holding onto her hand that was looped through his elbow as though he were trying to keep her in place. If they were going to sell this, everyone had to believe it. Tyler was standing at the door greeting people.

"Elena, who's this?" he asked, repeating the words that Caroline told him he had to say.

"Sam and Dean Winchester." She forced out, trying to sound panicked and pleading.

Tyler wasn't supposed to notice anything so he just waved them on through.

"Come on in, guys." He said, gesturing to the house.

Elena began to walk a little bit in front of Dean and he gently pulled her back to his side.

"Stay beside me." he instructed quietly.

Elena ripped her arm out of his grip and glared at him.

"I can walk by myself." She snapped, making sure to make a bit of a scene as she turned to walk once again.

"I'll go out front to watch for Mikael. You keep an eye on her, if you can." Sam said, raising an eyebrow at Dean.

"I can handle a tiny little eighteen-year-old." He scoffed, turning to follow Elena outside.

When they descended the steps towards the dance floor, Dean took her hand.

"Let's dance." On the outside, it sounded like a command.

But Elena could read between the lines to figure out that he was asking her to dance with him. Throw a fit and scream for a while for 'no'. Go with me willingly for 'yes'. Elena chose the latter and he led her onto the dance floor, gathering her in his arm as the slow song started.

"You're pretty good at this." she murmured as they stepped around the dancefloor.

"You're not too shabby yourself." He said with a soft smile as he looked down at her.

For one dance, they allowed themselves to get lost in each other's eyes. For one dance, they allowed for everything to disappear and to pretend that they were just two normal people dancing. But when that dance ended, they both turned and scanned the crowd for Klaus. He was standing with Caroline. When he caught sight of them, he nodded and they took it as their signal. It was time to find Mikael. Dean grabbed Elena's arm this time and pulled her through the crowd. Elena made sure to make a show of struggling slightly as they walked. When they got to the side of the house, Dean shoved her against the wall as gently as he could but enough to make it look forceful.

"Stop it." he growled, glaring at her as she cowered against the wall.

"Please, I'll do anything if you don't let these men hurt me. Please." She whimpered, making sure that tears filled her eyes and her voice broke a few times as she spoke.

"All we need is for you to be bait. Then you'll be free to live your life." Dean said, staring her down.

"I'm not so sure." A voice said from behind them.

Suddenly Dean's head was slammed against the bricks and he was knocked unconscious. Elena cried out genuinly as he fell to the ground. She looked up at Mikael with fear.

"Please don't hurt me." she begged.

"I can't make any promises." He replied, reaching forward and yanking her against his side as he dragged her around the house.

Elena's eyes widened when she saw Sam's crumpled form in the grass as well. She prayed that he was unconscious as well. It suddenly dawned on her and she began praying furiously in her mind for Cas to come and check on the brothers.

"Please, Cas." She whimpered.

"Who is Cas?" Mikael demanded, stopping short and turning her to glare at her.

"My… my boyfriend." She made up quickly, staring at him with fearful eyes.

A smirk appeared on his face.

"Your boyfriend isn't coming to save you." he promised her.

When Elena heard the fluttering of wings as he dragged her away once more, she hid the smile that threatened to show. They walked up to the front door and Elena saw Klaus standing in there with Caroline. His back turned to them.

"Elena!" she gasped, her eyes widening when she saw Elena being tugged along by Mikael.

Klaus turned to look at them and his eyes flashed dangerously when he saw Mikael. Then he turned and looked Caroline in the eye.

"Leave and forget that you saw any of us." He said to her.

"I'll forget I saw any of you." she agreed in a monotone before walking off.

Klaus turned back to them with a furious expression.

"What are you doing?" he demanded of Mikael.

"What does it look like I'm doing, boy?" the older vampire said tauntingly.

"Let her go." Klaus said, pointing at Elena.

"Please I don't know either of you…" she began.

"Shut up." Mikael growled, his hand tightening painfully around her arm. "Come out and face me, Niklaus or she dies."

Klaus stared at them for a moment.

"Go ahead, kill her." he said carelessly.

Elena gaped at him. Her plan was quickly going downhill and this was exactly what she'd been afraid of. Klaus was going to let Mikael kill her.

"He'll do it. Please." She begged.

"If she dies, you'll never break that curse." Mikael promised him.

"I don't need to be a hybrid. I just need to be rid of you." Klaus shot back.

"To what end, Niklaus? So you can live forever, with no one at your side? Nobody cares about you anymore, boy! What do you have other than those whose loyalty you forced? No one. No one."

"I`m calling your bluff, father. Kill her." Klaus growled.

But Elena was not fooled. Mikael's words hurt him. A single tear slid down his face and she actually felt bad for him for a moment.

"Come outside and face me, you little coward. And I won`t have to." Mikael snapped.

"My whole life you've underestimated me. If you kill her you lose your leverage. So go ahead. Go on. Kill her. Come on, old man. Kill her. Kill her!" Klaus bellowed.

Mikael laughed evilly and Elena knew that it was that moment that she was going to die.

"Your impulse, Niklaus. It has and will forever be the one thing that keeps you from truly being great." He said.

She heard a click and then felt a sharp pain in her back. She gasped pitifully as the knife pierced her. Klaus' shocked look swam in her vision and she considered the fact that he never actually thought Mikael would go so far as to kill her. It didn't matter now. She was dying. And Cas was busy with Dean and Sam. That was a good thing, they deserved to live more than she did. Mikael ripped the blade out of her back and dropped her to the ground. As she laid there bleeding out, she realized that she didn't want to die. She had the ability to heal herself but she hadn't done it by herself yet. There was no one to draw power from. Elena whimpered as she lay there, unable to move. Her eyes slid closed and she saw Dean's face in her mind.

"You can do this, Elena." she heard his voice encouraged her.

She concentrated on that, drawing strength from his voice and his face. When she felt the warm tingles spreading through her body, a smile graced her face. It didn't take long for her to be healed. And everything was healed. The slices on her wrists, the bruise from Mikael's grip, and the stab wound. She heard Mikael and Klaus still arguing and slowly turned over, standing up and brushing her hair out of her eyes. Mikael caught sight of her at the last moment.

"What the hell?" he said, his eyes widening as her hand shot out and wrapped around his throat.

"Never underestimate the human." She said, his attempts to remove her hand from his throat going nowhere.

How that was possible, Elena had no idea and she wouldn't think about that until Mikael was dead. She reached inside of his coat and found the familiar feel of a stake. She pulled it out and inspected it. It was fancy, symbols carved all over it and it was most likely made out of a special wood.

"This is fancy. What do you think, Klaus?" she questioned, tossing the stake to him as he stepped out of the house.

He caught it and looked down at it.

"This is a weapon that can kill an Original. You were telling the truth." Klaus said.

"Let me go. I can kill him and you will never be sacrificed." Mikael choked, his eyes wide.

"Brush up on your facts, Mikael. I was already sacrificed." Elena said, smirking at him.

Her hand let go of his throat just as Elijah, Rebekah, Kol and Finn walked onto the porch. Mikael turned to look at them with a shocked look.

"You really thought we would stand by as you killed our brother?" Rebekah asked, raising an eyebrow to her father.

"I was trying to do a good thing. He needs to be put down!" Mikael said, pleading with them to understand.

"No, Father, that would be you. You've hunted all of us for a thousand years. Now we put an end to that." Elijah said.

Those were the last words spoken before Klaus drove the stake into Mikael's chest.

"For good." Elena heard him murmur.

Mikael's body crumpled to the ground and bursted into flames as he cried in pain. They all stood and watched as he burned. Klaus looked up at Elena with a shocked look and walked to her.

"I can't say that I'm not curious, Miss Gilbert. There seems to be more to you than meets the eye." He said.

"You'll never know, Klaus." she said, moving past him.

"Elena." he said, catching her arm.

She turned to look at him.

"Thank you." he sighed as though it pained him to say it.

"You're welcome." She said genuinly, nodding at him before walking off.

When she caught sight of two tall figures walking towards the porch, she sighed with relief and ran towards them as best she could with her heels, throwing herself into their arms.

"You're okay?" Dean asked, inspecting her.

Elena was grateful that the dark purple cardigan hid the bloodstain that came from the stab wound.

"I'm fine." She said, smiling up at him.

They looked at Sam and he sighed.

"Go ahead and kiss." He allowed, turning around because he did not want to watch.

Elena grinned and turned to Dean, pushing herself up onto her toes and giving him a light kiss.

"Thank you." she whispered.

"For what?" he questioned.

"The dance." She replied, reaching up to stroke his cheek.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! A few things:**

**1. Please please give me your opinion on the Castiel chapter.**

**2. I know that Mikael and Balthazar are both played by Sebastian Roché. Just imagine that's not true because Balthazar will show up in this story. If it helps, I like Sebastian Roché and I like Balthazar better so imagine that he is Balthazar.**

**3. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Have I told all of you how much I love you lately? Because I do. You make this story worth writing. So thank you so much. **

**Thanks especially to Thera-Rocklynn, Raven176, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Dark Alana, DrawingMyHeartOut, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, neontreeslover, cdsnow, LineChokor, slayerdiaries, nluvwithemmettcullen, Chung60988, Beautiful Lie 5105, Andrienne, chiwi, MaddAlice, diehardromantic, and the guest all for reviewing.**

**A few things:**

**1. I am doing the Castiel chapter but in a different way than I planned. A few of my readers don't want to see it so instead of posting on this story I'm going to post it as a separate oneshot. If, later in the story, I want to write another Castiel chapter, I'll post it in the same story. I will let you know when it's posted and what it will be called. I hope that is a good compromise for those who do or do not want to read it.**

**2. Elena and Dean get in their first real fight (the jealous fight didn't count) in this chapter.**

**3. Parts of Elena's abilities are revealed in this chapter.**

**4. The Esther thing is going down! I apologize in advance if it is anti-climactic but the whole thing is meant to serve just a couple of purposes. First of all, to bring together everyone so that they can defeat a common enemy. Second of all, to give another glimpse into what/who Elena is. Unfortunately, as I'm kind of bad at writing this part and have very few ideas for it, the scene will be short and sweet but hopefully still good.**

* * *

Elena sighed as everyone gathered in front of the Lockwood mansion. Considering that Mikael was a pile of ashes on the porch, no one had to remove any body. She stood between Sam and Dean as everyone gathered in a small circle. Everyone couldn't help but marvel over the situation. Who knew that these separate groups, the Mystic Falls residents, the Originals, and the Winchesters, would all come together with one thing in common. Elena. All of their eyes, including the Originals, went to her as if they expected for her to tell them what to do next.

"I would like a drink." She sighed.

Everyone murmured in agreement and, before she knew it, they were all planning on meeting at her house for a drink. All she knew was that she had to show up and others would bring the alcohol. They all dispersed into their separate vehicles and Elena walked with Dean and Sam to the Impala. When they got to her house, she went upstairs immediately to change out of her bloodstained dress. After a few moments, she heard a knock on her closed door.

"Come in." she said before walking into the bathroom to put on more comfortable clothing and take down her hair.

"Hey." She heard Dean's voice as he walked in.

"Hey." She replied, grinning at him around the door before disappearing to get dressed

The first thing he spotted was her crumpled up dress and sweater on the ground. He rolled his eyes and bent down to pick them up. She was as messy as he and Sam were, which was an impressive thing to say. Dean stopped short when he spotted something on the dress. A rather large something, that was. He'd been around the hunter's life long enough to know a bloodstain when he saw it. He looked at the sweater and saw that it had a bloodstain as well though it was almost impossible to see against the dark fabric. When he compared the two, he noticed that both of them had a hole in them at the center of the blood, almost as if something stabbed through them and into the person wearing them. Dean set the clothes back on the floor just as Elena came out of the bathroom so that she wouldn't know that he saw it.

"How are you doing?" she asked, smiling up at him as she ran a brush through her silky locks.

"I'm fine. How are you? Did you get… hurt… or anything during the confrontation with Mikael?" he asked.

She looked back at him and shrugged but he didn't miss the way her eyes flashed to her clothing and back up to him.

"Nope." She replied easily.

He didn't betray the feeling that he had that she was lying.

"You sure?" he questioned.

Elena sighed and turned to him with a smile, putting her brush on her dresser and walking to him. She threw her arms around his shoulders and stared up at him with her big brown eyes.

"I did not get hurt." She said slowly, staring at him deeply before pressing her lips lightly to his.

He had to give it to her, she was good at making it seem like she believed what she was saying. Dean subtly let his hands fall to her lower back. As he pulled her closer, he softly prodded at the skin where the wound would have been. Elena's eyes widened and she winced as she felt a little bit of tenderness there. She pulled away to stare at Dean in shock.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, suddenly feeling very defensive.

She knew exactly why she was feeling that way, too. Because she'd been lying and now it was catching up to her. Dean was going to figure it out and what if he hated her for it?

"You sure you didn't get hurt?" he said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Fine, yes I got hurt, okay?" she snapped, yanking his arms away from her and picking up her dress and sweater from the ground before throwing it in the trash.

She would just have to buy Caroline another dress because the blood was not going to come out of that one.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dean demanded, also a little angry.

Elena turned to see his face slightly red. The good news was, he was not as angry as he was after he found out Sam could exorcise demons with his mind. But she was certain that if he found out that she could do unnatural things that no human should be able to do, would he be as angry with her as he was with Sam? That was why she was hesitant to tell him, not because of Castiel's insistence that she keep it quiet.

"Because I didn't think it was important! You can obviously tell that I'm fine. Look! My wrists are healed too!" she exclaimed, yanking back the sweatshirt she'd put on to show her healed wrists.

"And how exactly did you get healed that fast?" he asked, not at all put off by her defense of herself.

"Klaus gave me blood after Mikael died. It was Original blood so it's more potent and heals faster." Dean couldn't help the disgusted grimace that formed on his face at her words.

It made Elena angrier than she already was.

"That right there! That is why I didn't tell you!" she shouted, glaring at him.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Your total disgust for anything to do with vampires! Go ahead, Dean! Tell me how unnatural and disgusting they are! Tell me how my best friend shouldn't be alive because a psychotic woman who wanted to fuck up my life changed her into a vampire! Go ahead, mister hunter!" Elena shouted.

He looked taken aback by her outburst.

"Is it really just now bothering you that I am a hunter?" he demanded.

Elena glared at him before turning around and wrenching the door open to walk. But there was one last thing she wanted to say. It would be more truthful than she'd ever been about her fears of what she was and what she could do.

"It doesn't bother me! It just makes me angry that you are unable to see that not all people choose to be what they are! Do you think that Caroline would have chosen to be a vampire? Stefan? Damon? No one chose it, Dean! I sure as hell didn't choose to be what I am either! I don't even know what I am and that terrifies the hell out of me! So maybe you can remember that not everyone who is different from you is bad!" Elena shouted, turning to stomp down the stairs.

"I haven't said a word about any of your friends being vampires!" Dean yelled back, following her as she went.

"You don't think that I can tell what you're thinking? I've been with you nonstop for almost two months! I have seen you in your most vulnerable of moments! Of course I can tell what you are thinking!"

She didn't stop flying down the stairs as she shouted at him. When she reached the front door, she wrenched it open and ran out. Dean sped up to run out as well. He noted that she was surprisingly quick, already running down the street despite the fact that her feet were bare and probably had rocks digging into them.

"You're barefoot!" he yelled.

"I don't give a shit!" she screamed back over her shoulder, not even hesitating.

Dean sighed heavily and began massaging his temples as he watched her round the corner and disappear from sight.

"I know where she's going." A soft voice said from behind him, causing him to turn and see Caroline standing there.

"Really?" he asked hesitantly, not sure if the blonde was angry over what she heard.

Caroline nodded and opened her mouth to tell him.

* * *

Elena reached the graveyard in record time, stumbling over the dirt and grass before reaching her parents' grave. She collapsed onto the ground and leaned against it.

"How did everything get so screwed up?" she whispered, not really knowing who she was speaking to.

She hadn't meant to blow up at Dean. The truth was, it was driving her insane not telling him. She thought that it would make her feel a little bit better with Caroline knowing but it didn't. Dean and Sam were the ones she wanted to tell yet they were the ones she couldn't tell. Every once in a while, Elena wondered exactly why she had to obey the wishes of Castiel and the angels. Then she remembered that they could wipe out the entire world with their strength and she knew that there was no other choice. She couldn't help but wonder if Dean would react to her abilities the same way he did to Sam's.

They both believed they were doing the right thing in trying to grow them. They both believed that they were on the good side. How was it any different? Would he hate her for it? Just as she was thinking all of this, she heard the distinct noise of the flutter of wings.

"What do you want, Cas?" she said miserably, laying her head back against the gravestone.

"I know that you managed to heal yourself without using anyone to help you. I feel that you may have questions at this point." Castiel said, starting forward.

At the reminder of her healing herself, she remembered exactly how she'd been able to do it. It wasn't true that no one had helped her. She visualized Dean and he helped her. So to say that both Elena and the angel in front of her were shocked when she bursted into tears was an understatement.

"I can't do this anymore, Cas!" she wailed, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs as if to keep her body as constricted as possible.

"I'm afraid that I don't understand." Cas admitted.

"I can't continue to keep this to myself! You can't keep asking me to lie to Sam and Dean! It's unfair to me and it's unfair to them! I have to tell them!" she said, all of the sudden getting angry at him as she glared up at him with tears still flowing from her dark eyes.

"They will not understand, Elena. They do not yet know of their importance in the events to come." Castiel said, kneeling next to her.

She stared at him.

"I don't care." Elena said petulantly.

He sighed and wondered how to handle this situation.

"Is there anything else you can ask of me, Elena? I have already told you that I answer to someone, many someones, who are higher up than me." Cas said, looking a little bit frustrated beyond his emotionless exterior.

"Well you know what, I don't give a damn who your higher ups are! I am not going to take this anymore! This is my life and the people that I care about! You don't get to fuck with me and my family no matter what 'the events to come' are! Go ahead and try to stop me, Cas! Because I am not keeping my mouth shut anymore as long as this shit threatens to ruin the two most important relationships in my life. My relationship with Dean and my relationship with Sam." She snapped, pushing herself up to her feet before stomping off.

"Do you find yourself with a strong desire to protect the Winchester brothers? Do you find yourself attacking people and creatures you have no business attacking to keep them safe? Do you find yourself with a lot of added strength that a female of your size should not have?" Cas asked.

Elena turned to look at him with a strange look but nodded slowly as she remembered Mikael being unable to fight her off.

"Those things are important, Elena. It isn't just the healing. This goes far deeper. You have barely scratched the surface of what you can do." He warned her.

"Then just tell me what it is, what I am, and stop being so vague!" she exclaimed.

"I need to do damage control." He said, looking up at the sky.

"Damage control for what?"

She was answered with his disappearance and she let out a frustrated noise as she tried to wipe away the tears that were still leaking down her face. Elena turned to walk out of the graveyard but she cried out loudly as she felt a sharp pain shoot through her foot. She looked down to see that a particularly large and sharp rock, one that she could have sworn had not been in her path before, sliced into her foot leaving a cut that was about an inch and a half long.

"Dammit!" she screamed as she fell to the ground and looked at the blood flowing to the ground.

That was when she heard the familiar rumble of the Impala. She looked up to see Dean running into the graveyard. When he caught sight of her on the ground, a grimace of pain on her face and tears still streaming down her cheeks, he bolted to her, getting there in an impressive amount of time. When he knelt next to her and saw the blood, the color drained from his face and he looked panicked.

"It's just my foot." She sobbed, unable to keep her heaving cries at bay when she saw his concerned face.

"I know it hurts." He said soothingly, looking as though he was trying to figure out what to do.

She let out a wail and threw her arms around his shoulders.

"I'm so sorry!" Elena cried, burying her face in his chest.

His arms went around her automatically and he enveloped her in his warmth.

"Shh… it's ok." He murmured, stroking her hair.

She pulled away and hiccuped softly as she continued crying.

"I didn't mean it. Any of it." she said quickly before he could say anything.

"I know you didn't." he assured her, reaching out and stroking her wet cheek softly.

Then he looked down at her bleeding foot.

"We need to get home so that you can get patched up or… uh… healed." He said, working very hard not to wince at the thought so as not to make her angry and sad again.

Something suddenly occurred to Elena. Her insisting on telling Dean and Castiel showing no sign of stopping her. The large rock that was not there before coming out of nowhere. Castiel's claim that he had to do damage control. What if he had to do damage control on something that hadn't happened before? Something that she was about to do? Castiel was basically giving her permission to tell Dean.

"I have to show you something. The complete truth. Everything laid out in the open." she said, staring deep into his eyes.

"Okay." He said, a bit confused but glad that she was finally going to tell him what she'd been hiding so desperately.

She reached out and took his hands but she didn't take her eyes off of him.

"Do you remember when I was patching you up after the ghost incident and I wished that I could heal your bruise?" she questioned, her eyes wide as she spoke.

He nodded, not trusting his voice. Elena's eyes fluttered closed and she looked as though she was concentrating hard. The warmth flooded through her body easier this time. Elena wondered if there were any outside signs of what she was doing. It was easier to do it this time, she didn't need to summon up any strength at all. The feel of Dean's hands in hers was enough. When she opened her eyes, he was staring at her curiously. Her head dropped and he mimicked her motion, looking down at her foot. It was still covered in her blood but the wound was completely gone. Dean stared at it, shocked.

"Dean?" she asked in a small voice.

"How long has this been happening?" he asked, his voice very low and quiet as he spoke.

"I have known that I wasn't normal for a while. The doppelganger is, technically speaking, a supernatural creature. I guess it started when that demon said that I was worth more than Klaus' ritual. It also had something to do with the fact that when I wished for your bruise to be healed, I turned away for a second and when I turned back, it was gone. That's when this started." Elena said.

Dean stared up at her, his eyes as wide as hers were.

"Why didn't you tell me, Elena? Why didn't you tell me right then and there when you healed me? Why didn't you tell me a week, hell even a month, later? Why didn't you feel the need to inform me when we started kissing all over the place? Why am I just finding out now?" he demanded, sounding a little angry as he stood and backed away from her.

Elena stared up at him, her eyes watery and her lip trembling. It was truly frightening how much that look of hers affected Dean. How much he wanted to forget that she'd been keeping something this huge from him and gather her into his arms.

"I was scared." She whimpered.

All of the sudden, his angry look was replaced with a concerned one.

"What did you think I would do, Elena?" he asked softly.

"I don't know. I saw how you reacted to Sam's thing, and you were right to react that way, don't get me wrong. I saw how easily you managed to forgive and forget with Sam. But I wasn't sure if it would be the same with me. I was a freak who could do things with my mind and I didn't want you to make me leave. That's why I kept it quiet. Not because the angels told me to." She stressed, a pleading look on her face.

"Wait, the angels? Cas knows about this? Cas!" Dean shouted without giving her a chance to answer.

"He's not going to come, Dean. Cas is doing damage control." Elena sighed, pushing herself up onto her feet and balancing carefully on her still aching and blood covered foot.

"Damage control? For what?" he demanded.

"For this. Dean I was instructed to keep this from you. Cas was instructed to instruct me to keep this from you. There is someone up there pulling the strings and now Cas might be in trouble because he helped make this happen. He helped me tell you and show you exactly what is going on after I begged him to let me tell you." she said, teetering on her feet.

Dean looked taken aback for a moment. Of course, that was the moment that Elena lost her balance and began to tumble back down onto her ass. Before she knew it, two muscular arms were wrapped around her waist and she was staring up into emotion filled green eyes. As he helped her up to a standing position, supporting most of her weight, they didn't break eye contact or speak.

"I would never ever make you leave." He promised her.

Elena let out a soft sob and looked down.

"I don't know what is going on with me, Dean! It scares me! That's why I yelled at you. Because I can't do anything to change this. I can't do anything to stop it. I always feel the most confusing urge to protect you and Sam even though I'm just a weak eighteen-year-old girl. I can heal things just by thinking about it. Who knows what else I can do? Cas said I was just scratching the surface and I don't even know what that means!" she cried.

Dean sighed and pulled her into an embrace.

"You're not a freak and you shouldn't be scared. Because I'm here and Sammy and Bobby are here for you no matter what. Just like you said to me that everyone was here for me when I thought I was dying of ghost sickness and I was seein' Lilith all over the place. You really think we're ever going to let something happen to you? And just as a side-note, you are not a weak eighteen-year-old. You, Elena Gilbert, are one of the strongest people I know. I've seen you killing monsters with a gun that should be too powerful for you to hold. I've seen you hold conversations with demons that should terrify the hell out of you. I've seen you be compassionate and I've seen you be pissed off as hell. I've seen you attack a vampire that could break you like a toothpick without hesitation just to protect me. You have held me and Sam together countless times in this past month when, without you, we never would have been able to act like brothers again." Dean said.

Elena let out a half-sob, half-laugh at his words.

"You are strong and I would never ever leave you. You are always welcome in my life." he assured her.

She nodded and threw her hands around him.

"Thank you." she said softly, holding him tightly.

"Anytime." He replied, hugging her back as he buried his face in her hair.

Elena pulled away and looked him in the eyes.

"I have to tell Sam… now." She said softly.

* * *

They were outside in Sam and Dean's car. The music was blasting and Elena was speaking to Sam in low tones as Dean danced around to the music, making the entire car shake.

"I closed my eyes and I slipped awaaaaaaaay!" he sang as Elena finished talking.

"Wow." Sam murmured.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Elena replied softly, her eyes downcast and her hands twisting together.

"It's more than a feeling! When I hear that old song they used to plaaaaay!" Dean shouted and sang at the same time.

Sam picked Elena's face up with his hand and shook his head.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. I know what it's like to be scared to admit to something that scares you." he said.

Elena smiled and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him close to her.

"Thank you, Sam." She whispered.

"Yet I still recall as I wander on! As clear as the sun in the summer skyyyyy!"

Elena couldn't help it anymore. Her face broke out into a grin and they both looked at Dean, who was rocking his head dramatically to the beat.

"You can turn it down now!" she shouted, knowing that he had it so loud so that the vampires could not hear Elena's confession to Sam as they were sitting outside of a house full of them.

Dean reached out and turned the radio down, grinning at them.

"We good?" he asked.

"We're good." Sam nodded, pulling Elena into a side hug and making her smile brightly as she stared up at him with a gracious look.

"Good. We should get back inside. As far as I know, we have a crazy, witchy bitch to kill." Dean said, opening the door as he climbed out.

* * *

They walked inside and Damon and Caroline were waiting in the entryway for some reason.

"What happened to your foot?" Caroline shrieked, staring at Elena.

"Seriously, dude? More Than a Feeling?" Damon scoffed, staring at Dean, who glared back.

"I am getting about damn tired of you spitting your shit at me just because you don't get to keep Elena in a cage anymore." Dean snapped.

"How about you say that without your little bodyguard in front you?" Damon suggested, gesturing to Elena.

"Stop it!" Elena snapped, getting between them as they stepped towards each other.

"We still have a witch to defeat and she hasn't even risen from the dead yet!"

They grew silent and resorted to glaring at each other. The rest of the people involved in exterminating the Original witch and keeping her from ridding the entire world of this race of vampires gathered in the living room. Elena made sure that Dean and Damon were on opposite sides of the room. She, of course, stood between Sam and Dean.

"All right, Bobby has given me all of the information we need to stop this. Klaus has the witch's body and he'll deliver her to us. We need to be on holy ground so either a cemetary or a church will be best." Sam said.

"So… you have a plan?" Bonnie asked.

All eyes turned to Elena and the Winchesters expectantly.

"Here's what we're doing." Sam sighed, leaning forward to tell everyone the extremely complicated plan.

* * *

It took an entire day for the plan to be set up plus for the humans to get a few hours of sleep. But now it was being put into place. Elena paced quickly as she stood within the grounds of the same cemetary that her parents were buried in. Her eyes lifted to look at a statue of an angel. It had the traditional halo and wings with a harp in its hand.

"Angels don't carry harps." She scoffed, shaking her head.

"Balthazar actually enjoys doing such things to get a laugh out of the other angels. It hardly ever works. We are a very serious group." A voice said from behind her.

She turned to see Cas standing there in the shadows of the darkness. For the moment, she was alone with a salt circle formed around her while everyone gathered the supplies and met at the cemetary.

"You came." She sighed.

"I did." he agreed, sounding a little stunned about it himself.

"We need your help, Cas. We're trying to stop the seal. I assume that we have it right. It is the extermination of this race of vampires?" Elena asked.

Cas nodded, stepping into the light and narrowing his eyes at her.

"This will be much more difficult than any of you are imagining it to be. Esther Mikaelson's soul has been in hell for one thousand years. She will be very twisted and evil. Almost on the same level as Lilith. And she will have protection." Cas warned her.

Elena nodded, shivering as a cool breeze hit her.

"We need the blood of an angel." She said, gesturing to a knife and bowl on the ground.

Castiel nodded as though he was expecting this.

"I am surprised that you all managed to get this plan together so quickly. You are very remarkable for being an inferior race." He commented as he bent down and picked up the knife.

Elena ignored the insulting remark and winced as the knife cut deep into his wrist and his blood dripped into the bowl.

"The man… the one whose body that is… does he feel pain when you do that?" she asked hesitantly.

"No, he does not. He is pushed very far back into the recesses of this mind. I'm not even sure he knows what's going on in this reality. Sometimes I send his consciousness on extended stays on some sort of warm island location." Cas said, pulling his wrist away and not even caring as he stood there and the blood dripped off onto the dirt.

"That's nice of you." she commented.

Cas looked at the bowl and then back at her.

"I will see you soon." He promised before disappearing.

* * *

After everything was gathered in the grounds of the cemetary, including the creepy looking coffin that was sealed closed without any sign of opening, all of the vampires perked up and looked around.

"She's summoned a protection detail." Klaus growled.

"How the hell did she do that?" Stefan said, alarmed as they all looked towards the gates.

"Who is it?" Elena asked, feeling a bit lost.

"Werewolves." All of the vampires said with equally disgusted looks.

Elena's eyes slid over to Elijah and he understood what she was doing as soon as their eyes met. It was time for his specialty to be put into action.

"We'll go with you, brother." Rebekah said, pulling Kol and Finn to the gates of the cemetary along with Elijah.

They watched as the four Original siblings stood there standing still and prepared. When the first few werewolves drifted out of the shadows, Elena quickly noticed their eyes that were shining in the dim light of a new moon.

"They're possessed by demons." She murmured to Dean and Sam, looking up at them with wide eyes.

"Of course, possessing werewolves would make them even stronger. They came to stop us from stopping the seal being broken." Sam sighed, shaking his head as his hand flicked to the demon-killing knife.

Elena laid her hand on his and shook her head as a choking sound filled the air followed by a thump.

"They've got this." she said, turning to look at the four Originals.

Elijah was standing there with his jacket discarded long ago and his shirt sleeves rolled up. Not a hair was out of place as he dropped the first werewolf/demon heart and his entire hand was covered in blood.

"It's starting." Elena said, pulling Sam and Dean backwards towards the coffin, where Klaus' witch was ready to recite the powerful Latin words.

* * *

Once they began actually enacting the ritual, with each of the Original siblings' blood poured over the top of the coffin and Castiel's blood poured in a circle directly in front of it, the werewolves were taken care of and the Original siblings retreated back into the cemetary.

"We retrieved the demon blood you needed." Rebekah said, handing the bowl to the witch.

The woman immediately handed it off to Sam, who knew what to do with is. As everyone worked around them, Elena, Dean, Bonnie, Jeremy, and Alaric were all stuck back with nothing to do. This, of course, did not sit well with Dean. He wanted to fight.

"Do you want me to punch you in the face so you'll stop complaining?" Damon growled.

Even Damon, Caroline, and Stefan were given the responsibility of protecting the mortals from any threat that might come near them.

"Stop it." Elena immediately berated, not allowing Damon and Dean to get in yet another fight.

She watched as Sam overlapped Castiel's blood with the demon blood. It sizzled and formed a black scorchmarked circle around the coffin.

"Get ready. She's about to be summoned into her body." Sam warned as he backed away from the coffin.

Everyone shifted into a defensive stance. Elena felt the overwhelming urge to put herself in front of the brothers but she knew that they would never let her. Now that it was supposed to be connected to her healing ability, she didn't really know how to react to the feeling. Before it had been so natural to defend them. Now she found herself hesitating and really thinking it through. As she thought about it, she realized that she didn't give a damn if it was part of her being a 'guardian', whatever the hell that was.

Sam and Dean needed to be protected and she was the one that needed to do it. Before she could even shift forward to put herself in front of them, Dean figured out what was going through her head.

"Don't you even dare. Not this time." he warned her, narrowing his eyes at her.

She glared back at him and felt the overwhelming urge to punch him and then take her rightful place in front of him to fight against anything that tried to hurt either Winchester brother. For some reason, an idea echoed in her mind. It wasn't just her duty to protect them from other beings that wanted to kill them; it was up to her to protect them from themselves. Elena bit her lip hard and kept herself rooted in place despite the fact that her entire body was screaming at her to move.

All of the sudden, the ground began rumbling and they all stumbled as an earthquake shook the area around them. It ended as quickly as it began and a heavy wind suddenly picked up and blew through the cemetary as the witch shouted out the words. They heard a faint creaking noise and their attention was turned back to the coffin that was slowly creaking open. Then, suddenly, it flew open and a bright, blinding light filled the air. They all covered their eyes as it hurt to look at. As it slowly faded away, they all looked to see that the coffin was gone and a woman in a course, very old dress was standing in its place. Her long blond hair was pulled halfway away from her her stern face.

Her striking blue eyes that matched Klaus' so closely stared around at all of them with a distinct disgust in them. She stepped forward but stopped at the line that was made up of angel and demon blood. Her eyes flickered down and back up.

"Clever." She said in a smooth voice, her eyes immediately going to Klaus.

"It looks like you chose the right group of people to protect you from obliteration, my son." She said, her eyes narrowing at him.

"Hello, Mother." He said, glaring back at her.

"I am not your mother, Niklaus. You stopped being my children the moment you all turned into the abominations I see before me today. You created a disgusting, unnatural race and I am here to set nature right. I will destroy all vampires and everything will be set right." she said in a cool voice, staring at all of them individually.

When her eyes fell on Elena standing just behind Sam and Dean, her face barely showing between their large bodies.

"Ah, the young doppelganger." She said in a breathy voice, almost sounding reverent.

Elena found her worshipping tone a little strange. A small smile formed on Esther's face.

"You will send one brother to the devil and another to the archangel. You will bring about the apocalypse and the world will crash and burn around these pathetic mortals who have no idea what is going on around them. Never has a female been so underestimated by everyone since the creation of Eve. Much like your ancestor, you will bring about the fall of man. In your presence, one brother will kill another in a field. The snake will bite the heel of man and death will rule this pathetic planet. The guardian will fail." Esther said, staring straight at Elena as she spoke.

Elena felt a cold chill run through her entire body at the witch's words. It sounded so dangerously like a prophecy and she couldn't help but commit the damning words to memory.

"Enough of that, Esther." Klaus growled starting forward with his fists clenched.

Suddenly he was on the ground with a pained expression. They watched with horror as blood began to leak out of his ears, nose, and eyes.

"Do not underestimate me, Niklaus. I am far more powerful than you and I can obliterate you right here and now." Esther said in a deadpan voice.

"Stop!" Rebekah cried as Klaus gritted his teeth and let out a guttural shout of pain.

Esther looked up at her and Klaus collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily as the pain stopped.

"Rebekah. Do you really imagine that I will have any mercy for any of you? Once I get out of this circle, your deaths will be slow and painful. You will suffer for what will seem like thousands of years yet it will all happen in a matter of minutes. Every vampire will be dead before the sun rises." she threatened.

As if to prove her point, Esther spread her arms out and every vampire there, including Caroline, Damon, and Stefan, collapsed to the ground screaming as they exhibited the same signs as Klaus. It got worse as they began vomiting up blood as well. Sam and Dean stood stubbornly in front of Elena as they watched with panicked expressions. This was not supposed to happen. The witch began to yammer out a spell to counteract what Esther was doing but the older and more experienced witch turned to her. It took about two seconds of Esther staring at her for the other witch to explode in a bloody mess.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean muttered underneath his breath.

Elena couldn't just stand there. It wouldn't be long before Esther turned her attention on Sam and Dean. Her arms shot out suddenly and fisted into the backs of the brothers' jackets. Elena wrenched them backwards and they flew past her as she walked forward. Fury burned in her as she heard the painful cries of the vampires around her. Not even keeping in mind her own safety, Elena strode forward casually and into the circle with Esther. The witch's eyes followed her in amusement but her smirk quickly disappeared when Elena's hand wrapped around her throat.

"Stop what you are doing, now." She growled, squeezing it tightly.

Esther's arms went to Elena's wrist, attempting to pull it away. Luckily this motion distracted her and Elena heard the screaming stop. All of the vampires must have fallen unconscious from the pain

because she didn't hear any of them say anything.

"You are already so strong. So much stronger than any of the others ever before. Do you know why the angels couldn't stop you from telling Sam and Dean? Because they are afraid of you. You have power that they've never seen before." Esther choked out, her sharp nails scratching at Elena's hand and arm, cutting into her and causing blood to drip off of her arm.

"Do you really think that I am going to believe a word you say? You will not win this fight Esther, be it with words or with your powers." Elena growled through gritted teeth, watching with satisfaction as Esther's face turned red with lack of air.

Suddenly and unnervingly, the Original witch's face broke out into a satisfied grin.

"I didn't come here thinking that I was going to win this battle, Elena. I knew that I was going to die. I came to give you a message." She said softly, her strength slowly failing her.

"Was it that pathetic prophecy? Because I don't believe a word of it either." Elena scoffed.

"No, it's from someone in a cage, a very special cage with sixty-six seals. He says hello and that he can't wait to meet you face to face. Lucifer says that you two, and the Winchesters, are going to have so much fun." Esther said with a thrilled grin.

Elena stared at her, unsure of how to react. She heard the flutter of wings and her eyes met Castiel's over the witch's shoulder as he plunged a knife into the witch's heart. Elena stumbled away as Esther screamed. Her body looked as though it was being filled with light. It poured out of her mouth, eyes, and ears as she threw her head back and shouted in pain at the sky. Her body exploded in a shower of light and Elena covered her eyes as it happened. When she opened them again, Castiel was standing over her holding out his hand. She took it and he pulled her to a standing position.

"Why didn't you tell me that you had to kill Esther?" she asked, staring at him.

"Because I was not certain until I was given this blade and told to do so." Cas said, gesturing down to the small sword.

Elena stared at it and the longer she did so, the more of a pull she felt to it.

"What is it?" she breathed, almost mesmerized by it.

"It is a very special sword that can kill many things that do not normally have weaknesses." Cas said, putting the sword into his jacket.

Elena looked up at him with wide eyes, wondering why she felt a sudden stab of anger at the fact that he was keeping the weapon from her.

"All of your friends will be all right though the vampires will have headaches for a few days. As for you, you cannot remain in this town for much longer. There are other people and places which require your attention." Cas warned her.

Elena nodded slowly, almost in shock over everything that had happened so quickly. When Cas disappeared, she turned back to see Sam, Dean, Bonnie, Jeremy, and Alaric standing among the unconscious vampires. Everyone but Sam and Dean were checking them to see if they were still alive. The two brothers walked over to Elena.

"I'm fine." She sighed before they could ask.

"Your arm." Dean said, lifting it to look at it.

It was covered in deep scrapes and scratches from Esther fighting against Elena. It almost looked as though a wild animal attacked her. Elena let her eyes flutter closed naturally and gripped both Dean and Sam's hands as she concentrated heavily. She sighed and opened her eyes moments later to see that her arm was healed.

"That was weird." Sam commented, staring at her arm with wide eyes.

"Really? After what we just saw, you say that's weird?" Elena questioned, raising her eyebrow at him.

Sam shrugged and Dean pulled her into a hug.

"You need to stop being so damn brave." He grumbled, squeezing her tightly.

"I know." She murmured, relaxing into his arms and realizing how exhausted she was by the day's events.

It took a long time but they finally managed to get all the vampires back to the Gilbert house. They were all in various states. Caroline and Stefan were still unconscious. Damon was halfway awake but a bit out of it and even delirious. The Original siblings were recovering much quicker, all sitting on the ground side by side and simply staring straight ahead with storming eyes. It didn't take long for everyone who was conscious and sane to notice that Elena was very close to passing out. She had a feeling that she'd pushed herself too far too quickly that night.

So at the insistence of quite a few people, Elena finally stumbled upstairs and into her bed. Her eyes were closed and her mind was drifting off into a dreamstate before her head even hit the pillow. But Esther's words were echoing in her mind as she fell asleep, sure to haunt her dreams with horrific images.

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay so I don't really like this chapter at all but I hope you do. Please review if you did like it.**

**A few things:**

**1. Yes, the Winchesters + Elena are leaving Mystic Falls in the next chapter.**

**2. No it is not going to be easy to convince everyone (aka Damon) that it is best for her to leave.**

**3. The sword that Cas used is NOT an angel-killing sword and it will be explained in the future as well as the reason that Elena felt so drawn to it. If you want to see what I imagine it looking like, look up an image of sting from Lord of the Rings. **

**4. PLEASE REVIEW!**

**5. You're all still amazing. And, if you didn't know, Dean is singing 'More Than a Feeling' by Boston in the Impala scene.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, LineChokor, Dark Alana, DrawingMyHeartOut, Limetka.111, cdsnow, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, neontreeslover, Raven176, Meowgli, Andrienne, chiwi, diehardromantic, ArizonaGirl181, AmhFluffy, slayerdiaries, MaddAlice, Beautiful Lie 5105, and Hollywood 17 for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. DrawingMyHeartOut – we will see all of those characters and more, trust me! I so want to write some fun sassy scenes between Elena and Crowley or Elena and Balthazar. **

**2. Holy crap, guys. We're almost to 200 reviews. I'm going to ask for any new scenes you want to see so start thinking of ideas.**

**3. Parts of this chapter are going to be in Dean or Sam's points of view just because that is the easiest way to write what I want to write.**

**4. Enjoy!**

* * *

Elena let out a half cry, half gasp as she sat up in her bed. It was completely dark in the room and she looked around with bleary eyes. The moon was full and shining through the window and that should have been her first clue that this wasn't real because the moon wasn't full when she went to sleep. Elena slid out of her bed slowly, pulling on her jacket that was lying on the ground. She spotted the weapon that Cas used on Esther and grabbed it automatically, not even thinking about it before she picked it up and gripped it tightly. She slowly descended the stairs, calling out for everyone. No one was answering her.

When she walked outside, her mouth dropped open and she stared around with a shocked look. The neighborhood around her was destroyed. Houses were crumbled to pieces and the road had a jagged crack going through it, pulling the two sides of it apart to reveal a pitch black hole that ran the length of the street. She walked down the sidewalk looking for anything to give her a hint as to what was happening.

"Elena." a voice said behind her.

She turned to see Caroline and Alaric standing there. They both looked tired and had scars that she'd never seen before all over their faces, arms, and everywhere else.

"What is going on?" she hissed, starting forward as her eyes widened.

They both stared at her as if she was insane.

"The apocalypse." They both said in deadpan voices.

"What?" Elena said, stopping short as she looked around.

"You failed, Elena. The Guardian failed." Caroline said and Elena could faintly hear Esther's voice behind Caroline's saying the exact same thing.

Suddenly they were in another place. Elena whirled around as she recognized it as the cemetary.

"The apocalypse wasn't stopped. It happened. Everyone died." Alaric said, looking down at the gravestones.

Elena's hands flew to her mouth and she tearily gazed at the gravestones. Bonnie Bennett. Matthew Donovan. Tyler Lockwood. Rebekah, Kol, Finn, Elijah, and Niklaus Mikaelson. Jeremy Gilbert.

"How?" she whimpered.

"You failed." Caroline repeated.

Elena looked at them with a questioning gaze and they gestured to two other gravestones.

"You failed to keep them safe. They died and the apocalypse happened because they weren't around to stop it." Alaric said.

She stumbled forward and let out a tragic cry as she read the names. Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester.

"No!" she cried, collapsing on her knees before their graves.

There was silence for a moment before she heard a shuffling noise and two screams filled the cemetary. She turned to look and saw that Caroline and Alaric seemed to be burning from the inside out. Elena jumped up and stared on in horror as they bursted into flames and fell to the ground, screaming until they finally died. When she looked up, she saw a well-dressed man standing at the entrance to the graveyard. He was wearing a business suit and his hair was a light blonde. A smirk appeared on his face and he waved tauntingly at her.

"Hello, Elena. I'm Lucifer." He introduced himself.

Elena opened her mouth and screamed loudly.

* * *

She sat up straight in her bed once again and stared around with wide eyes. Her window was shut and locked, there was no knife on her table, and she was back in the real world now. Regardless, Elena let out a soft sob and sat there crying for a moment before two warm arms wrapped around her. She inhaled sharply and immediately recognized Dean's comforting smell. She hadn't seen him come in which meant that he must have already been in the room watching over her. She relaxed into his arms and fisted her hand in his t-shirt as she inhaled and exhaled deeply to stop the tears.

"You wanna tell me what that dream was about?" Dean asked.

Elena bit her lip and looked up at him.

"The apocalypse." She said hoarsely.

"You were thinking about what the witchy bitch said, weren't you?" he confirmed.

She nodded slowly, her eyes downcast shamefully. Dean sighed and pulled her against his chest.

"Well here's what I think. I think that we need to get the hell out of Dodge. This town is way too weird to stay in. We can go back to Sioux Falls and hang out with Bobby for a while and then we can pick up a case and things can go back to normal. Okay?" Dean said.

Elena nodded against his chest, wanting to do exactly what he said so badly.

"Unless you want to stay here. I mean, you've got your brother and you friends. And Stefan and Damon." Dean said, all of the sudden sounding less confident.

Elena looked up at him with wide eyes and reached out to stroke his cheek, not minding the slight stubble that always seemed to be there.

"We'll leave in the morning." She said softly.

A grin broke out on his face and he pulled her to him once again. This time, they collapsed back onto the pillows and she curled up next to him.

"Maybe we can even take Sammy with us. How about that?" Dean joked, back to his normal self.

Elena let out a giggle and he smiled at her reaction.

"First, let's get some sleep." She sighed, yawning as she spoke.

"Sounds good." He agreed, moving to get out of the bed.

Her hand clenched on his shirt and she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Don't leave." She said pleadingly.

Dean stared down at her for a moment with an unidentifiable emotion on his face before he relaxed and nodded, shifting back over to take her in his arms. It didn't take Elena long to nod off again and Dean was surprised to find that he was also drifting off into sleep, her warm body next to him lulling him into the unconscious state. His last thought was that this felt nice… really nice.

* * *

Elena woke up to Dean sliding out of the bed. She looked at the window to see that the sun was just rising.

"It's time to go, isn't it?" she mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"It is if we want to get to Bobby's as soon as possible." Dean said, pulling on his jacket and turning to face her.

"I just have to say goodbye to Jer and Ric." She said, sliding out of bed.

Before she could walk out of the room, Dean caught her wrist and she turned.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" he asked hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" she replied, confused by his question.

"You can stay here, Elena. I don't want you to feel like you have to come with us. If you want to stay here, stay." He urged her.

"I don't want to stay here. I want to go with you and Sam. That is my life now, not Mystic Falls. I'm meant to be out on the road with you two not here going to school and pretending to be a normal person." She said, placing her hand over his heart and looking up at him with tired eyes.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"More sure of this than anything. Now go wake up Sam and we'll get going. I'll leave everyone else a note while you two pack up the Impala." She said, patting his chest before turning to get dressed in a comfortable pair of sweats and a sweatshirt with her hair tied up into a topknot.

After walking out of her room, Elena walked into Jeremy's room and tiptoed over to the bed. When she shook him awake, he sat up straight and looked around wildly.

"It's okay, Jer. It's just me." she said softly.

"Elena." he sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm just coming to say goodbye. It's time for us to leave." She whispered.

Jeremy looked over at her for a moment with surprise before gathering her into a hug.

"I know you're going out to be a badass hunter person but be careful, okay?" he questioned.

"Of course." She nodded, hugging him back.

"I love you, Jer." she said as they pulled away.

"Love you too, Elena." he replied, looking a bit sad but completely understanding at the same time.

She smiled sadly at him and placed a kiss on his forehead before sliding off of his bed and going to Alaric's room. He followed because he wasn't quite ready to let his sister go yet even though he knew that he would have to. Elena shook the older man awake and he sat up similarly to Jeremy. When he looked into Elena's eyes, he knew immediately what was going on. They came to stop Esther and that was over now. They had other things to do and Alaric knew that the lives of hunters did not allow them to stay in one place for too long. He stood up and pulled Elena into a tight, comforting hug. She sighed, wrapping her arms around his torso and leaning her head into his chest.

"Thank you for taking care of him, 'Ric." She whispered, unable to speak any louder without fear of crying.

"I wouldn't dream of doing anything else." he replied, pulling away to look at her.

"I'll come back, I promise." She told him.

"Just keep yourself safe, that's all I want." Alaric said.

Both Jeremy and Alaric walked downstairs and watched as she wrote small notes to everyone that she wasn't going to say goodbye to. They both promised her that they would get to their intended recipients and she couldn't help but hug them both one last time. When they walked out, Sam and Dean had just finished packing the Impala up and were leaning against it to wait for Elena. She turned to give Jeremy and Alaric one more sad smile before she walked to it. As her hand came down on the doorhandle, another hand caught it and she looked up with surprise to see Damon. Standing behind him were Stefan, Bonnie, and Caroline.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, looking up at Damon.

"You're just leaving?" he growled, looking angry.

Sam started forward to intercept but Damon grabbed him by the throat and threw him into the air, causing him to land on the asphalt with a loud thump.

"Damon!" Elena exclaimed, moving to run to Sam.

His hands grabbed her shoulders and he turned her to face him. He gripped her tightly as his cold blue eyes glared at her.

"You really think that I'm just going to let you leave again?" he snapped.

"Damon let me go! You don't get a choice!" she argued, struggling against his grip.

"Damon stop!" Stefan commanded.

Damon made no move to let her go. Elena knew that she could have fought her way out of it but she really didn't want to hurt Damon again. She didn't want that to be their last moment together but he was making it very hard for her not to snap his neck.

"You aren't safe out there, Elena."

Dean stormed up behind Damon and seized his shoulders to drag him away from Elena. Damon whirled around and slammed his fist into Dean's cheek, causing him to stumble backwards. When he turned back around, Elena was ready with a sharp kick to his knee and then a fist to the face. When he bent over, she slammed her knee into his nose and was satisfied when she heard a sickening crunch. No one touched her Winchester boys. She ran to Dean, observing the small cut on his cheek and brushing her fingers over it.

"You ok?" she murmured.

"I'm fine. Go check on Sam." He grumbled, standing up and glaring down at a bleeding Damon.

Elena quickly ran to Sam and found that he was unconscious with a bleeding head wound that came from hitting the ground so hard. She placed her hand over the cut and closed her eyes, concentrating on healing it. Sam woke up the moment she felt the warmth leave her body and enter his. He stared up at her with surprise and she smiled down at him.

"You've just been healed." She said dramatically, helping him sit up.

"It feels strange." he informed her.

"Imagine how it feels for me." Elena said, standing up as he stood.

When she turned, she saw Damon getting up and she immediately left Sam's side to pull Dean behind her.

"You cannot keep trying to control my life, Damon. It's not yours to control and if you don't stop, you won't be a part of it anymore." she threatened, watching as he wiped the blood from his nose.

"Well at least I'm trying to keep you safe unlike your wonderboys." He said, gesturing to Sam and Dean.

"Does it look like I need someone to keep me safe, Damon? I've kicked your ass twice now. Dean and Sam keep me safe but they also know that I can make my own decisions and live with the consequences. You can't keep me locked up in a little box because you're afraid that I'll get hurt. I am my own person and I will decide what I do and I certainly don't need your help in doing so." she said.

"Do you really think that I'm doing this because I want to keep you locked up, Elena? I'm doing this because I love you!" Damon said desperately, looking less vampiric and more human.

Elena sighed and bit her lip.

"Damon… I'm sorry. I know that I probably confused you with that kiss when you were dying but I was confused too. There was so much going on and I'd just lost Jenna and John. I was grieving, Damon. You can't hold me to my actions in that moment. The truth is, I was never yours to love." she said softly, not wanting to send him into another furious and violent fit.

He stared at her for a moment.

"Elena I am giving you a chance at a normal life. No hunting and killing things. No evil witches or apocalypse or Lucifer. Just stay here and try." Damon said.

"A normal life with a vampire, Damon? You are a vampire. And I'm not human either so I will never have a normal life. That was never a choice for me. If it was… well I probably wouldn't have even chosen it because I can't imagine knowing all that I know and going back to a white picket fence life. It would be selfish and unfair to everyone else. I cannot stay here, Damon. I will never be satisfied here."

"So you just go wandering around with these dicks and never have that love and family that I know you've always dreamed of?"

"I don't know what will happen in the future, Damon. But I know that whatever does happen, it won't be with you and it won't be with Stefan." Elena replied, quickly tiring of this conversation.

"Who do you think you have other than us? Other than me, huh?" Damon snapped skeptically, glaring at her once again.

"Hey, you might be pissed that she's chosen going with us over staying in this one-horse town but that's no reason to say things like that." Dean said, starting forward to tangle with Damon again.

Elena stopped him and stepped forward.

"You're just jealous that we've kissed, dick. I can see the way you look at her. Too bad, huh?" Damon said, laughing at Dean.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Elena demanded.

"I know what it's like to want something you can't have." The vampire shrugged, smirking tauntingly in Dean's direction.

Elena turned around, ready to stop Dean from attacking Damon again and getting hurt again. He started forward with an angry spark in his eyes but they immediately shifted to Elena as he walked towards them. Somehow, she knew what he would do. Elena opened her mouth to protest but he immediately cut her off, pressing his lips to hers and gathering her in his arms. His arms wound around her back and lifted her towards him. Elena, as always, melted into him and threw her own arms around his shoulders, accepting his lips immediately. When his tongue swept across her lips, she granted him access and they kissed like the world was ending. It went on and on. Those who were watching with mouths slightly ajar and wide eyes could not deny that this was the hottest kiss they'd ever seen. Even Alaric let out a low whistle as it continued.

"Don't they have to breath at some point?" Caroline asked Bonnie softly.

"You're talking about the kegstand champion of Mystic Falls High." Bonnie replied, grinning slightly as she watched the feverish kiss.

When they finally broke apart, both gulping in air greedily, their lustful eyes met and Elena couldn't help the smile that formed on her face.

"Jealous." She whispered, reminding him of their earlier conversation in which he adamantly refused any suggestion that he was jealous of anyone.

"Not jealous, just tired of that guy's shit." Dean replied.

"Well whatever it was, keep it up." She murmured with a wink, drawing away from him and turning to look at Damon.

He looked partly pissed, partly hurt, and partly ready to throw Dean into any oncoming traffic he could find.

"I'm leaving, Damon. There is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. So stop trying." She said in a tone that indicated that the conversation was over.

"So what? You're just going to leave and go fuck around with this guy while you're on pathetic little hunting trips? Or are you screwing around with both brothers?" Damon growled.

Elena launched forward and her hand connected with Damon's face.

"I know that you are hurt but don't you dare ever suggest that I'm a whore again!" she hissed, glaring up at him.

Regret washed over his face but Elena would have none of it. She whirled away from him to face Stefan, Caroline, and Bonnie. Everyone watched with surprise as she walked forward and embraced Stefan.

"I'm sorry that it didn't work out between us. I really am. But I don't think that we were ever meant to be together. Too many things have been pulling us apart from the beginning. I'm sorry that you had to find out about me and Dean like that, though. It wasn't exactly fair to you." she said, pulling away just as she finished her speech.

"It's fine, Elena. I can see that both of them make you happy… in different ways… and that makes me happy. You deserve a good life and I hope that once you get past all of the crazy happening, that you can get one." Stefan said, stroking her cheek.

She smiled up at him, wishing that Damon had been more gracious like Stefan was. When she moved onto Caroline and Bonnie, they all embraced each other at once, the three girls squeezed together.

"I guess you're a freak like us now, huh?" Bonnie murmured.

"We were all freaks even before we knew about all of this stuff." Elena corrected her.

"That's true." Caroline and Bonnie laughed.

"I promise that I'll call you guys more often than I did before. And I will come back." she vowed as she pulled away.

"You better." Caroline nodded, wiping tears from her eyes.

Elena grinned and turned to Sam and Dean, ready to try leaving again.

"Hey Winchesters." Caroline said.

Everyone turned to look at her to see what she would say.

"You'd better take care of her. And you…" she pointed to Dean with narrowed eyes.

"… if you hurt her, you will have me and Bonnie to answer to. Vampire, Witch." She said threateningly.

Dean nodded solemnly.

"And keep up the hotness factor, it works for you two." The blonde said with a wink, causing Elena to laugh and all of the men to shift uncomfortably.

"We'll be leaving now." Elena said with a grin as she turned towards the car.

"Does this make you my girlfriend now that your family knows?" Dean whispered jokingly as he opened the door for her.

Elena turned to face him with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought we weren't going to label this quite yet." She said softly.

"I know we aren't. Doesn't mean I can't tease you about it." he said softly, leaning in and kissing her forehead before gesturing for her to get in the backseat.

Elena watched out of the window as they pulled away, getting one last glimpse at her Mystic Falls family. As they drove out of the town she grew up in, Elena felt a huge weight lift off of her shoulders and she knew for certain that this was no longer home. She didn't really have a definitive home anymore. The Impala and Bobby's house in Sioux Falls were her homes just as they were Dean and Sam's homes.

* * *

Elena stretched out as she climbed out of the car at the gas station in the small town in Indiana.

"I'm going for bathroom and snacks. Do you want anything?" she asked, grabbing her wallet that had her own illegal yet very helpful fake credit cards in it.

"Pie!" Dean said pleadingly, inserting the gas pump into the Impala.

"Of course." She said rolling her eyes. "Sam?"

"Just some water please." He requested.

"Got it." she nodded, heading inside.

After going to the bathroom, she walked into the store area and began looking around for food and drinks. When she gathered all of the food, she walked to the counter and set it all down. There wasn't a cashier there so she looked around curiously. After waiting for about a minute, Elena looked around for a bell to ring. She leaned forward, peeking around the cash register. That's when she caught sight of the bloodstain. She froze and turned her head to look out the door. She couldn't see Dean but Sam was slumped over in the passenger seat of the car, his head resting on the dashboard.

Elena felt her body begin to tremble and she readied herself to run. She didn't get two steps forward before hands seized her and dragged her backwards. She screamed loudly as she was shoved up against the counter. When she looked upon the people before her, she saw that their eyes were fully black. They were possessed by demons.

"Funny thing, when you rip out a demon-possessed werewolf's heart, you only kill the werewolf." The blonde female said, staring at Elena.

"What do you want?" she demanded, readying herself for a fight.

"You." a male said, shrugging.

Elena opened her mouth to speak again but her head was suddenly slammed against the counter and everything went black.

* * *

Once they woke up, Sam in the passenger's seat and Dean on the ground, they ran inside to look for Elena. The cashier was dead and Elena was nowhere to be seen.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean shouted, slamming his foot into a display of keychains.

"Hey Dean." Sam said, bending down to retrieve something off of the ground.

They both looked at it and saw that it was a hotel room key.

"Well at least these dumb assholes left us a trail." Dean growled, slamming his way out of the gas station.

* * *

When Elena woke up out of the darkness, she stared around the unfamiliar room. It looked somewhat like a hotel room. She tried to move and found that she was tied down to a chair. Blood was running down her face and the rope was digging into her wrists painfully. The three demons from the gas station were spread out through the room and they were all staring at her.

"So this is the oh so important girl? You're a little pathetic looking." The blonde said, playing with a lock of her platinum hair.

"What do you want?" Elena spat, glaring at them.

One of the males flew forward and backhanded her across the face, causing her neck to snap to the side and blood began running down her cheek as the ring he was wearing connected with her cheekbone.

"You won't talk unless we ask you something." He growled, leaning down to get in her face as she turned to face him again.

"You mean you have enough brainpower to formulate a question, you dumb fuck?" she snapped, rearing her head back and slamming it into his forehead.

He stumbled backwards as she blinked her eyes to get rid of the stars she was seeing. It wasn't exactly a good idea to do that as she now had a killer headache as well. The demon's face turned red and he started forward again, wrapping his hand around her neck.

"That's enough!" the blonde commanded as Elena began to sputter and black out without the air.

His hand disappeared and Elena gasped, inhaling air sharply.

"You actually don't have to answer many questions, sweetie. Just tell us why you're so important or we'll have to resort to drastic measures." The female said, walking to kneel in front of her, her hands on Elena's knees.

"Dean and Sam are going to show up and they are going to kick your ass! Every single one of you!" Elena hissed, glaring down at her.

The blonde laughed.

"Oh honey, we wouldn't have taken you if we didn't want the Winchesters to come. We want them to get you back. Why do you think we left a trail for them to follow?"

Elena stared at her, confused.

"Well I can see this isn't going to happen the easy way… so I suppose we'll have to do it the hard way." the blonde said before opening her mouth wide.

Elena screamed as black smoke began to pour out of the blonde female's mouth.

* * *

Once they found the motel, it wasn't hard to find the room number once they gave the owner a couple of twenty-dollar bills. Dean kicked it open without hesitation and they both ran in, guns drawn and ready to blow someone's face off. They immediately spotted Elena unconscious in the middle of the room tied to a chair. A blonde was lying at her feet.

"Get Elena." Sam said, reaching down to check the blonde's pulse.

Dean quickly untied Elena and pushed her hair out of her face as he attempted to wake her up. The dark bruises forming on her cheek and forehead made him see red as he seized her shoulders and shook her lightly. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at him for a moment.

"Dean?" she questioned hoarsely.

"Yeah, you okay?" he said, putting his hand on her uninjured cheek softly.

"It was demons. I think they left when they figured out one of them left the hotel key. They were already holding this girl hostage and I think that they killed her." Elena said, looking down at the blonde.

Dean looked at Sam, who nodded to indicate that the blonde was dead.

"Come on, let's get you out of here. We'll hunt those demon assholes down another day." Dean said, picking Elena up and cradling her as they walked outside.

When they had her situated in the backseat, Dean stared at her hesitantly.

"Elena, why aren't you healing yourself?" he asked.

Her eyes popped open out of surprise and then met his.

"I'm too weak, Dean. I think I need to get some sleep first." She said pathetically, her lip trembling as she spoke.

"Hey that's okay. You sleep for as long as you want. We're just gonna keep driving to Bobby's, okay?" he asked, not wanting to upset her further.

Elena nodded and shut her eyes once more, spreading her body out on the seat. Dean climbed into the driver's seat and Sam into the passenger's seat.

"I really wish those demons would have been there so we could kill them." He said, his eyes shifting backwards to read the look on Elena's face when he said this.

It shifted slightly but it was almost too quickly for him to see. He began driving and looked over at Sam, who was staring back at Elena with a strange look as well.

"Well let's get going. This car ain't gonna drive itself." Dean said, starting it up and pulling out of the parking lot.

* * *

After driving for about thirty minutes, Dean and Sam became more and more certain that the person lying in the backseat was not Elena. First of all, instead of sleeping like she was pretending to do, she had a look of frustration and concentration on her face. When Dean looked over at Sam, the younger Winchester nodded and his eyes shifted over to the side of the road. When the car rumbled to a stop, 'Elena' opened her eyes and looked around.

"What's going on?" she asked sleepily.

"We just gotta check something out." Sam said, opening his door at the same time as Dean.

They both walked to the passenger side of the car and waited patiently for a moment until the door opened. 'Elena' climbed out and looked around with a confused look. When she caught sight of them staring at her, she sighed and slammed the door shut, her eyes flickering to the demon-killing knife in Sam's hand.

"What gave me away, boys?" she asked, her voice totally different as she walked forward with a smirk.

"The way you slept." They both said at the same time.

'Elena' looked confused.

"Elena doesn't sleep spread out like that. She curls up into a ball and rolls on her side." Dean said, glaring at her.

"Hmm… well I would have known that if this stupid girl didn't have her mind on lockdown. I can't even access her memories. She's good, I'll give her that."

"So you're a demon?" Sam questioned.

"Of course I'm a demon. What else would I be?"

"Get out of her, now." Dean growled, his hands curling into fists.

"Make me. Oh that's right, you can't. Little Sammy here has stopped using his powers and that knife will kill your precious Elena if you use it on me. Decisions decisions. What will they decide?" she said tauntingly, leaning up against the car with a grin.

Suddenly they heard a flutter of wings and Castiel appeared a few feet from 'Elena'. The demon's face grew panicked and she attempted to run off but Castiel stopped her with a firm grip on her arm. He turned the demon around to face him, his blue eyes narrowed at her.

"When you go back to hell where you belong, you can tell the rest of your kind that this girl, this body, is off-limits. If anyone comes near her, they will risk the wrath of the angels." He said in a gravelly voice.

"Please…" the demon began to plead, her eyes wide as she tried to struggle away from Castiel.

"I don't often give second chances. Be grateful that I'm not smiting you right here and now. Unfortunately it would damage Elena's body beyond repair." Cas said, turning her around to face Sam and Dean.

"Do it. I can heal Elena." he said.

"Don't please! I know what Lucifer wants with her!" the demon cried, her eyes wide and pleading.

"I don't believe you." Dean said.

Sam launched forward and stabbed the knife her heart, wincing as Elena's body flashed with the light and she crumpled to the ground. Castiel immediately bent down and placed his hand over the wound, closing his eyes as he concentrated. Dean and Sam watched with anxious anticipation as the moments ticked by. Finally Elena inhaled deeply and sat straight up, coughing loudly. The brothers sighed with relief and kneeled next to her, wanting to ensure that it was her, not the demon.

"The demon is gone." Castiel assured them.

"Thank you." Dean said, nodding at him once before focusing his attention on Elena, who looked up at all of them.

"So that's what getting possessed feels like?" she questioned hoarsely, putting her hand up to her head and wincing.

"Yeah." They said, not knowing what else to say.

"I can't say that it doesn't suck. Because it does." She decided, gripping them tightly as she stood on shaky legs.

She looked over at Cas and smiled softly.

"Thank you for doing that." she murmured gratefully.

"My warning might not be enough to keep the demons away from Elena. Word is spreading about her importance and the fact that she's traveling with you two. Her soul is now as longed after as the two of yours. There will need to be more done to keep her from becoming possessed again." He said, looking between the three of them.

"It's okay, I have an idea." Elena said, biting her lip hesitantly.

* * *

"Ow!" she complained, squeezing both Dean and Sam's hands painfully.

"Hey 'Lena, you know you're kinda strong, right? I think you're breaking our hands!" Sam gasped as she squeezed even harder.

"Stop complaining! Why didn't you tell me this hurt so bad?" she whined, tears filling her eyes as she kept her body completely still.

The buzzing of the tattoo needle was in the background as the artist leaned over Elena's almost bare back.

"Trust me, we're more sorry than you are." Dean said, wishing for this to be over so that the bones in his hand might stop grinding together.

"I'm almost done." The artist said, peeking up at Dean and Sam.

"Thank God." All three of them sighed.

The hand crushing lasted for another five minutes until the artist finally drew away and Elena sighed with relief, letting her head fall onto the cushion of the chair and she let go of Sam and Dean's hands. They both let out whimpers as they shook out their hand.

"Little ones, right? They are always stronger than they look." the artist guffawed knowingly, finishing up the job by cleaning up the skin with alcohol once more.

"You have no idea." The brothers said at the same time.

"You wanna see it?" the artist said.

Elena nodded, standing up as she held her shirt to her chest and backed up to the full length mirror on the wall to peek at her new tattoo. The black ink stood out on her bronze skin but she couldn't deny that it looked kind of good. The symbol that matched Sam and Dean's was smaller and placed in the center of her shoulderblade. The skin around it was an angry red but she knew that it would go down once the pain went away. She turned to face Sam and Dean, smiling slightly.

"Now we match." She said, smiling at him as the artist walked up and put a bandage over the tattoo.

"Change this every day for a week and you'll be good to go." he assured her.

"Thank you." Elena nodded before pulling her shirt on and sighing.

Dean walked to her and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm glad that you're protected now. I can't believe we didn't think to do it before." he whispered into her ear.

She shook her head and pressed her lips to his softly.

"It doesn't matter. Everything is okay now." She assured him, turning to smile at Sam who was still massaging his hand.

"Let's get going." She said, pulling them out of the tattoo parlor.

* * *

**Author's Note: I know that not much happened in that chapter but I hope you'll forgive me and review to tell me what you think.**

**A few things:**

**1. The Supernatural storyline continues next chapter with the halloween episode.**

**2. Elena's refusal to label her relationship with Dean is going to come back to bite her in the ass in a few chapters.**

**3. Anna is showing up soon.**

**4. Review please!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, neontreeslover, slayerdiaries, meowgli, DrawingMyHeartOut, LineChokor, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, Andrienne, chiwi, Dark Alana, and MaddAlice for reviewing!**

**A few things:  
**

**1. This chapter doesn't quite have smutty lemony stuff in it but it certainly starts taking steps towards that so I hope you like it.**

**2. Uriel is here!**

**3. Elena makes a promise that she will regret.**

**4. ****It's that time again. Tell me any new ideas or scenes you want to see in this story and I will work hard to make it happen. Review this chapter and this chapter only with your ideas.**

**5. Enjoy!**

* * *

It had been a week and a half since their return from Mystic Falls. They hadn't heard of any new cases coming up so they were stuck in Sioux Falls doing nothing but making salt rounds and researching stuff for the apocalypse. When they weren't doing anything with Bobby and Sam, Elena and Dean would sneak off and enjoy each other's company. It would have annoyed the other two hunters but they were glad that the two seemed happy. At that moment, they were in Elena's room on her bed. Dean was leaning against the headboard and Elena was settled between his legs with her back pressed against his chest. Her eyes were closed as their hands were entertwined and they stared out the window at the cloudy day.

"Do you think we should go help Sam and Bobby?" she asked, not really wanting Dean to say yes.

"Nah." He said, shaking his head as her head fell back onto his shoulder.

"I agree." She murmured, turning to kiss his cheek as they simply sat there.

"But I can think of something we should do." He said casually.

"What is that?" Elena questioned.

When he remained silent, she sat up and turned to him, wondering what he was thinking. There was a sparkle in his eyes that she couldn't quite place.

"What are you thinking?" she implored.

"This." he said, switching her around and laying her down on the bed, settling between her legs before leaning down to kiss her.

Elena relaxed into the kiss. Her legs lifted to wrap around his waist and her hands wrapped around his back to pull him closer. His muscles rolled and twitched underneath his thin t-shirt. Without really thinking about it too much, Elena let her hands drift downwards and slip underneath his shirt, pushing it up as they came to rest on the middle of his warm back. He shivered underneath her touch as they continued to kiss feverishly. Suddenly he drew away and sat up. Elena was about to complain until he reached back and yanked his shirt off, revealing his muscled torso to her.

She grinned up at him and pulled him back down, her hands roaming his back as their lips met once more. His skin was smooth and soft. Elena gasped when his hand pushed her shirt up and came to rest on her hip that was half covered by her jeans. His other arm wrapped around her back, lifting her up as her shirt rode up more. Elena pulled away, staring up at him with curious eyes. He watched with a careful gaze as she slowly lifted her arms above her head. The welcoming nature of her gesture did not go unnoticed. Dean sighed as he slowly pushed her shirt up and over her head, revealing her soft curves and bra-clad breasts. His eyes roamed her almost bare torso hungrily and she flushed underneath his gaze.

"You're beautiful." he mumbled, lifting her up to his face to connect their lips once more.

Elena sighed into the kiss and they both felt as though their bodies heated up about twenty degrees when the skin of their torsos met. They sat up and Elena's legs were still wrapped around Dean's waist, causing her to straddle him as they sat their entangled in one another. Their lips did not leave the others as they shifted positions. One of Dean's hands drifted up and down Elena's spine and the other tangled into her long hair. Elena couldn't help but continue her exploration of his back. Suddenly Dean pulled away and looked at her. She gave him a questioning look.

"We're not going any further." He said, not forming the thought into a question on purpose.

Elena smiled softly at his ultimatum, finding that she agreed with it.

"I know." She nodded, pulling him back to kiss her once more.

A knock on the door rudely awakened them out of their sensual exploration of each other's bodies. Dean turned to glare at the closed door.

"What?" he growled.

"We have a case. We have to get going now." Sam said from the other side of the door.

Elena sighed and let her head fall to Dean's shoulder.

"Fine. We'll be there in a second." Dean grumbled, clutching Elena close to him.

They heard Sam's footsteps withdrawing and Elena lifted her head to look at Dean.

"He spoiled our fun." She said with a pout.

"We'll make up for it later." He promised her, stroking her hair and leaning in to kiss the pout off of her face.

It took a few more minutes for them to finally emerge from the bed and begin to pack for the trip.

* * *

"What is the case?" Elena asked as she straightened her pencil skirt and then zipped it up.

Sam and Dean were in other parts of the motel room getting ready to go out as FBI agents as well.

"Not very charming, I can tell you that." Sam said as he fixed his tie in the mirror.

Elena looked at him questioningly.

"Luke Wallace. Guy is married, in his thirties, normal wife and baby. Gets candy for Halloween and is sneaking some of it when he chokes to death on his own blood." Dean said, reciting the case file that they got from Bobby from memory.

"No one knows how?" she said, pulling a dark blue cardigan on over the cream shirt that was tucked into the black skirt.

Her hair was straightened for the first time in forever but she had it pulled halfway back and secured by a black clip.

"It might have had something to do with the razor blades they found in his mouth, throat, and stomach." Dean commented, running his fingers through his messy hair to try to get it to cooperate.

Elena turned around with a pained face, her eyes wide as her hand went to her throat.

"I think I might throw up." She mumbled, her face going a bit pale.

Both of the brothers nodded, grimaces forming on their faces as they thought of Luke Wallace's gruesome death.

* * *

"Now how many razor blades did they find?" Sam said, standing in front of the emotional widow as he took notes.

Dean was looking around the room and Elena was leaning against the counter listening to the woman's story.

"Two on the floor, one in his stomach and one was stuck in his throat. He swallowed four of them. How is that even possible?" Mrs. Wallace said, her lip trembling as she spoke.

Elena winced as she thought of it. It was a horrible way to die and it had her wondering why someone could be so cruel. A creaking noise made them all look at Dean, who was inspecting the oven closely.

"The candy was never in the oven." Mrs. Wallace said, partly confused and partly accusing.

Dean glanced up, closing the oven quietly.

"We just have to be thorough, Mrs. Wallace." He assured her.

"Did the police find any razors in the rest of the candy?" Sam asked, pulling her attention away from Dean.

"No, I mean, I don't think so." the widow said, sounding a little dazed.

Elena watched as Dean noticed something on the ground and dropped to one knee to figure it out.

"I just – I can't believe it. You hear urban legends about this stuff, but it actually happens?" Mrs. Wallace mumbled, shaking her head as if she really didn't want to believe it.

"More than you might imagine." The younger Winchester said softly, trying to sound soothing to the emotional woman.

Dean stood with a slightly angry look and held up a small canvas bag behind Mrs. Wallace so that she couldn't see it. Sam caught sight of it but didn't react at all. Dean dropped the bag into his pocket before the woman could see it and Elena looked at him questioningly. He shook his head, indicating that they would talk about it later.

"Mrs. Wallace, did Luke have any enemies?" Sam questioned, his eyes shifting from his pad of paper to her.

"Enemies?" Mrs. Wallace sighed, sounding confused.

"Anyone who might have held a grudge against him?" Sam explained.

"What do you mean?" the woman demanded, sounding a little angry at the question.

"Co-workers? Neighbors? Maybe a woman." Sam asked as if it was the last thing that he wanted to say.

"Are you suggesting an affair?" Mrs. Wallace demanded.

"Is it possible?" he said, his eyes downcast shamefully.

"No! No, Luke would nev…" Mrs. Wallace cut herself off, shaking her head as more tears filled her eyes.

"I'm very sorry. We just have to consider all possibilities." Elena pitched in, walking forward to place a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

The woman turned to face her with a desperate look.

"If someone wanted to kill my husband, don't you think they'd find a better way than a razor in a piece of candy he might eat?" Mrs. Wallace said pitifully, her eyes pleading with Elena to figure out what happened to her husband.

"We'll find out what happened, Mrs. Wallace." She assured her.

The woman nodded and turned away from her.

* * *

After they left the Wallace house, they went their separate ways. Dean went to go investigate about Luke Wallace to see who might have had it out for him. Sam and Elena went back to the hotel to do research on the hex bag that Dean found in the home. Before they did anything, they both changed into more comfortable clothing. Sam put on jeans and his normal t-shirt and plaid shirt. Elena put on a pair of cotton shorts and a long-sleeved t-shirt with her hair thrown into a high ponytail. They sat on the couch, Elena curled up on one side with a book in her hands and Sam hunched over the coffee table on the other side researching on his computer.

After about an hour of reading and writing down whatever they could find on hex bags, Dean came walking in. They looked to see him chowing down on candy. Elena rolled her eyes.

"Really? After that guy choked down all those razor blades?" Sam scoffed at his brother.

"It's Halloween, man." Dean shrugged, walking forward to lean against the arm of the couch next to Elena.

She reached out and automatically entwined her fingers in his, not taking her focus off of the book she was scanning.

"Yeah, for us every day is Halloween." Sam sighed, rubbing his forehead as Elena nodded in agreement.

""Don't be a downer." Dean said as he leaned over to peek at the research that they'd compiled so far.

"Anything interesting?" he asked.

"Well, we're on a witch hunt, that's for sure, but this isn't your typical hex bag." Sam said, gesturing to the open hex bag that revealed what was inside.

"Hmm, no?" Dean

Sam reached over and picked up the dried up flower looking thing.

"Goldthread, an herb that's been extinct for two hundred years." He explained.

Elena reached over and grabbed the silver piece.

"This is Celtic, and I don't mean some new age knock-off. It looks like the real deal, like six hundred years old real deal." She described, handing it to Dean.

Dean nodded and bent down to pick up the charred piece that was the last part of the hex bag.

"And um… that is the charred metacarpal bone of a newborn baby." Sam informed him, expecting a bad reaction out of him.

"Ugh. Gross." Dean said, looking disgusted as he put it back down.

"Relax man, it's like, at least a hundred years old." Sam shrugged, picking it up to inspect it.

"Oh, right, like that makes it better? Witches, man, they're so friggin' skeevy." Dean shuddered.

Elena looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Except for your Bonnie, of course. She's a charmer." He assured her, smiling unconvincingly.

"She still creeps you out, doesn't she?" Elena questioned.

"It's the magic thing that creeps me out." he sighed.

"Well it takes a pretty powerful one to put a bag like this together. More juice than we've ever dealt with, that's for sure. What about you? Find anything on the victim?" Sam questioned as Dean moved to the bed closest to the couch to get as far away from the metacarpal bone of a child.

"This Luke Wallace? He was so vanilla that he made vanilla seem spicy." Dean scoffed, pulling out another piece of candy.

Sam and Elena both groaned at their lack of information or leads. This case was already not an easy one.

"I can't find any reason why somebody would want this guy dead." Dean said, leaning back as his face screwed up in concentration.

Elena sighed and reached for yet another book to continue researching what it could all mean and Sam did the same.

* * *

After hearing sirens outside, they got a phone call from Bobby reporting another mysterious death at a high school Halloween party. Elena was temped to make the boys go without her but she wanted to see what was going on so they all put on their business suits once more and headed to the address. When they got to the door, a skeptical police officer looked them up and down with a smirk.

"I'm Agent Bonham. This is Agent Plant. FBI." Dean said, both of the brothers holding out their badges.

"And her?" the officer asked, his eyes flickering over Elena and remaining on her bare legs for far too long and making both brothers squirm with annoyance.

"Anastasia Page. I'm an analyst for the FBI and I am working with these two agents on this case." She said, pulling out her own ID and showing it to him.

"Analyst, huh? Well I think that our own police department can do a mighty fine job of figuring out what happened here. Drunk teenagers and Halloween do not mix very well despite the fact that they love to try it every single year." The officer said, narrowing his eyes with distain at the three of them.

"I have no doubt that the police department is perfectly qualified. You, however, are just a glorified bouncer checking ID's before people walk in the door. So we'll be going inside now to look over the crime scene of our case and you can just keep on weeding out the hot girls from the drunk, nerdy guys." Elena said, brushing past him with an icy glare.

Dean let out a low whistle as they descended the stairs.

"I dunno, Agent Plant, I'm thinking that we can let Miss Anastasia Page do all the talking from now on." he said.

Elena smirked back at him as they walked into the room. A girl with blonde hair and a tiny cheerleading outfit was being questioned by a police officer in the center of the room.

"Have you been drinking?" the police officer questioned.

"Yes." The blonde girl said, nodding.

Sam started forward to question her but Dean stopped him.

"I got this one." He said.

Sam sighed and shook his head as Elena turned to glare at Dean.

"Two words… jail bait." Sam said.

"I would never…" Dean began to defend himself until Sam's eyes flashed over to Elena.

"Hey, I'm legal!" she hissed.

Sam simply raised his hands in surrender and Elena rolled her eyes.

"I'll question her. You look for anything mysterious." She snapped, turning to walk to the girl and the police officer.

Sam and Dean went to the couch and began digging through the cushions to see if they could find another hex bag.

"It's just so weird. The water in the tub – it wasn't hot, I had just been in there myself." The girl was saying to the police officer as Elena walked up.

"Your friend didn't happen to know a man named Luke Wallace?" Elena asked.

The girl and the police officer turned to her and she held out her ID

"Anastasia Page, FBI." She offered, smiling at the police officer as he slipped away.

"Um, who's Luke Wallace?" the girl asked, tilting her head to the side as if she was confused.

"He died yesterday." Elena said, getting a strange feeling off of this girl.

"I don't know who that is." She shrugged, looking bored yet slightly concerned.

Sam held up a hex bag and Elena nodded in his direction, turning back to the girl to get her name and information in case she needed to be contacted further.

* * *

Once again, they were spread out researching how and why a teenage girl could be boiled alive by an apple bobbing station. Elena was laid out on the bed with Sam on her stomach while he was on his back. Every once in a while, when they were getting bored of what they were reading, they would wordlessly switch books and continue on. Dean was at the table munching on some food and researching the victims on the computer.

"I'm telling you, both these vics are squeaky clean. There is no reason for a wicked bitch payback." Dean sighed, leaning back and dragging his hands down his face.

"Maybe cause it's not about that." Sam said, sounding excited as he sat up.

Both Dean and Elena looked at him questioningly.

"Wow, insightful." Dean commented sarcastically.

"Maybe this witch isn't working the grudge, maybe they're working a spell. Check this out. Three blood sacrifices over three days, the last before midnight on the final day of the final harvest. Celtic Calendar, the final day of the final harvest is October 31st." Sam said, getting up to walk over to Dean.

Elena followed, leaning over the Dean's shoulder to read the book that Sam handed him.

"Halloween." Dean said.

"Exactly." Sam confirmed.

"What exactly are the blood sacrifices for?" Elena asked.

"Uh, if I'm right, this witch is summoning a demon, and not just any demon… Samhain." Sam said.

Both Elena and Dean stared at him with blank looks.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Dean asked, shrugging.

"Dean, Samhain is the damn origin of Halloween. The Celts believe that October 31st was the one night of the year when the veil was the thinnest between the living and the dead, and it was Samhain's night. I mean, masks were put on to hide from him, sweets left on doorsteps to appease him, faces carved into pumpkins to worship him. He was exorcised centuries ago." the younger brother explained, gesturing dramatically with his hands.

"So even though Samhain took a trip downstairs, the tradition stuck." Dean sighed.

"Exactly, only now instead of demons and blood orgies Halloween is all about kids, candy and costumes." Sam said.

"Okay, so some witch wants to raise Samhain and take back the night?" Dean questioned.

"Dean, this is serious." Sam said, staring at his brother with exasperation.

"I am serious." He said quickly.

"We're talking heavyweight witchcraft. This ritual can only be performed every six hundred years."

"And the six hundred year marker rolls around…?" Elena asked, hoping that it wasn't the next night.

"Tomorrow night." Sam nodded

"Naturally." Dean said, putting the book down to show them a page that showed the demon standing on a pile of bodies and holding a head in his hands.

"Well it sure is a lot of death and destruction for one demon." Dean commented

"That's because he likes company. Once he's raised, Samhain can do some raising of his own." Sam said, looking down at the picture.

"Raising what, exactly?" Elena questioned.

"Dark, evil crap and lots of it, I mean, they follow him around like the friggin' Pied Piper."

"So we're talking ghosts?" Elena asked.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"Zombies?" Dean said.

"Mm-hmm."

"Leprechauns?" Dean asked.

"Dean…" Elena sighed, dropping her head into her hands.

"Those little dudes are scary. Small hands." Dean said with wide eyes.

He was slightly dissuaded when neither of the other two laughed.

"Look, it just starts with ghosts and ghouls, this sucker keeps on going, by night's end we are talking every awful thing we have ever seen. Everything we fight, all in one place." Sam stressed.

"It's gonna be a slaughterhouse." Dean realized.

"And we're right in the middle of all of it." Elena said.

"We need to find this witch and we need to find it now." Sam said, slamming the book shut as he turned to walk to the bed.

* * *

Elena and Dean were sitting outside the Wallace house just watching in the early morning hours of the next day. They'd questioned her again and she insisted that she didn't know the victim who died the previous night so now they were just staking out the house while Dean ate piece of candy after piece of candy. Currently, Elena was leaning back with her back against the passenger door and her legs spread out on the seat, her feet in Dean's lap where he was unconsciously trailing his hand up and down her ankle. She didn't really mind as the situation felt so natural that she couldn't help but smile every once in a while.

"Would you stop eating so much damn candy? You're gonna get sick." Elena said, eyeing the wrappers that littered the floor of the Impala.

"I can't help it! It's so addictive!" Dean said, closing his eyes with satisfaction as he swallowed a piece of taffy.

"You're like a child." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey! I never got Halloween so this is me making up for it. My Halloweens growing up consisted of hunting and ganking every creepy thing that preyed on the children that were out and about all night." Dean said, looking over at her.

Elena bit her lip, suddenly feeling sorry for berating him.

"My Halloweens were always the same. We would dress up, go out and trick or treat, and then Jer and I would go home and sort our candy out into the different kinds while we watched Hocus Pocus." Elena said, smiling fondly at the memory.

"What's Hocus Pocus?" Dean asked, unwrapping a piece of chocolate.

"It's a children's Halloween movie but it's so amazing that you can watch it at any age. Have you and Sam seriously never seen it?" Elena asked before waving at him and opening her mouth.

He smiled at her and reached over, popping the chocolate candy into her mouth. She grinned at him as she chewed and leaned back once more.

"Nah, we never did." he said, shrugging as his hand went back to her ankle.

"Well I am officially going to make you watch it after this is over." Elena decided even though it probably wasn't a good idea to make them watch a movie with witches just after dealing with a case that involved a powerful witch sacrificing people.

"What can we do now? I'm bored." Dean whined.

Elena looked around for a moment, trying to figure out anything they could do to amuse themselves on this boring stake out. When she glanced up, Dean had the same gleam in his eye that he had in her bedroom in Sioux Falls.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" she said, smiling at him.

He didn't answer, instead reaching out to entangle his fingers with hers. As he pulled her towards him, she found herself following without question. Her legs came off of his lap to slide under her as she crawled over to him. When she got within inches of his face, one of his hands slid up her arm and to her cheek. The other arm traveled from the small of her back to her thighs. His hand hooked around one of her legs and pulled them apart, turning her easily so that she was straddling his lap.

Elena inhaled sharply and looked down at him, unsure of where his sudden change in attitude came from. She couldn't say that she didn't like it, though, as it set her whole body aflame. His hands both rested on her cheeks and he brought her down to his mouth. Their kiss was soft and sweet at first but that didn't last long. Elena opened her mouth slightly and swept her tongue across his lower lip before biting down softly. A groan accidentally escaped from his mouth and she tangled her fingers in his hair as she pressed her lips harder to his.

When she gave his soft hair a slight tug, pulling his head back and eliciting another moan from his throat, she drew away and looked at him to see that his eyes were filled with lust and his mouth was slightly open and panting. Dean must have liked having his hair pulled and that made her even more heated as she kept the locks firmly in her grasp, pulling his head back a little bit more. Her mouth descended, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth before kissing up his jaw to his ear. Her teeth grazed his earlobe before she continued on her path to his throat, attacking it with soft, open-mouthed kisses. His breathing was quite irregular as she did this.

After a few more moments, Dean seized her and pulled her back up to his mouth for a bruising, passionate, heated kiss. Elena responded in kind, pressing herself as close to him as she could get. In doing so, her hips accidentally rocked against his and her cheeks heated up as she felt his increasingly hardening manhood brush against her thigh. Dean's hands gripped her thighs and she clutched at his shoulders. Dean's hands moved up her thighs before cupping her ass, automatically pulling her closer so that she brushed against his arousal once more.

This time, his manhood brushed against her heated core and she let out a soft cry. Their lips melded together once more and Elena unconsciously began rocking on his lap to their shared pleasure. When she began to kiss his jaw again, Dean's head fell to the left and he stiffened underneath her.

"Son of a bitch!" he cursed, his hands seizing her arms.

Elena stopped and pulled away, staring at him with narrowed eyes.

"What exactly caused you to react like that?" she asked suspiciously.

Dean didn't take his eyes off of the window and she turned to see what he was staring at. The girl from the party, Tracy, was walking up to the Wallace's door.

"I mean, son of a bitch." Dean muttered.

Tracy knocked on the door and Mrs. Wallace answered it, smiling at her before handing her the baby.

"She lied." Elena realized, sitting up on his lap to watch as Tracy and Mrs. Wallace greeted each other warmly.

Dean groaned frustratingly and let his head fall back as she moved out of his lap and into her own seat.

"We should get back to the motel to talk to Sam." Elena said, pulling her phone out to inform the younger Winchester of the new development.

"Seriously? This is happening again?" Dean snapped, shoving the keys into the ignition.

Elena looked at him with a sympathetic look, knowing exactly how he felt.

* * *

Dean and Elena walked into the motel with food and candy in their arms and they set it all on the table. Sam walked over and immediately began digging through it.

"So, our apple bobbing cheerleader?" he asked.

"Tracy?" Dean questioned.

"Mm-hmm?" Sam confirmed, picking up a burger and opening it to take a bite.

"The Wallaces' babysitter. Told me she never even heard of Luke Wallace." Elena said as Dean pulled off his jacket.

"Huh, interesting look for a centuries old witch." Sam said, walking back over to his bed and sitting down again.

Elena and Dean followed, sitting side by side on the other bed as they began to eat their own food.

"Yeah, well, if you were a six-hundred-year hag and you could pick any costume to come back in, wouldn't you go for a hot cheerleader? I would… hmm…" Dean murmured.

Elena turned to glare at him, raising her eyebrow and Sam stared at him with a furrowed brow. Dean noticed they were staring at him after he finished being lost in thought and he caught sight of Elena's look and blinked innocently.

"I mean you, of course, babe." He said, throwing on a fake grin and reaching out to throw his arm around her.

"Don't call me babe. You only say that when you're trying to make up for being a perverted asshole." Elena said, rolling her eyes as she ducked out of his reach.

"You never get onto Sam for being perverted and he always has some sort of porn in that backpack of his." Dean said, gesturing to his younger brother.

"And who buys said porn?" Elena questioned, looking over at him with knowing eyes.

Dean fell silent and Sam chose that moment to talk about the case again.

"Well, Tracy's not as wholesome as she looks. Did some digging… apparently she got into a violent altercation with one of her teachers, got suspended from school." he said, handing Elena the laptop as Dean leaned over to read what it said.

Next to a picture of Tracy were some notes, mainly about her being suspended from school for attacking a teacher.

"I say we go find this teacher and ask him if he's seen any witchy business from his student." Elena suggested.

Both brothers nodded and they all got up and dressed to go back to high school.

* * *

Elena and Dean walked into the art class first after being shown where it was. Sam was hanging back and peeking in Tracy's locker after figuring out the combination. Dean stopped short and looked up at the masks that were hanging around the doorway. He stood still staring up at them with wide eyes.

"Dean?" Elena questioned, concerned at his panicked expression.

He flinched as she reached out to him.

"Dean, are you ok?" Elena said, panicking as well.

She saw Sam walk into the room and looked at him hesitantly.

"Bring back memories?" Sam asked as he walked up, not noticing Dean's expression.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked fearfully, snapping out of it as he turned to face Sam.

His face was still a little pale but Sam didn't notice.

"Being a teenager, all that angst." He said, looking around at the students milling around the room.

"Oh." Dean sighed, obviously relieved that Sam didn't notice his fear.

"What'd you think I meant?" Sam asked, finally realizing that Dean's reaction wasn't normal.

"Nothing." Dean brushed off, turning to survey the room.

He noticed a kid from the party the night before attempting to put a huge bong in a kiln.

"Now that brings back memories." He said, grinning as he returned back to his normal self.

It was easy to forget that Dean spent an extended amount of time in hell when he acted so normal. Elena had almost completely forgotten about it until now. Now she was simply concerned and she had no idea what to do. If he was having flashbacks by simply seeing a few masks, what could she do?

"Dude, I need a bigger kiln." The kid said, guffawing at his friend.

"You gentlemen wanna talk to me?" a man said, walking in with a crate of artwork.

"Ah, Mr. Harding." Sam said, holding out his hand.

"Oh, please, Don." He said, shaking it and smiling up at Sam.

"Okay, Don." Sam said, a little hesitant.

"Even my students call me Don." The teacher said, turning to Dean and shaking his hand.

"Yeah, we get it, Don." Dean said gruffly, nodding at him as he walked to the desk.

"I'm Agent Bonham, this is Agent Plant and Miss Page. We just had a few questions about, uh, Tracy Davis." Dean said, looking around the room.

"Uh, yeah, Tracy, uh, bright kid, loads of talent. It's a shame she got suspended." Don said, looking solemn

"Uh, you two had a… uh, violent altercation." Sam asked

"Yeah, she exploded. If Principal Murrow hadn't walked by when he did, Tracy would have clawed my eyes out." the teacher said, looking unbothered by the incident.

"Why?" Elena asked

"I, uh, you know, I was only trying to rap with her about her work. It had gotten inappropriate and disturbing." Don shrugged, digging through the crate.

"More disturbing, than, uh, those guys?" Dean asked, pointing at the masks.

"She would cover page after page with these bizarre cryptic symbols, and then there were the drawings. Detailed images of killings, gory, primitive, and she would depict herself in the middle of them, participating." Don said, making Elena, Dean, and Sam give him slightly disgusted looks.

This sounded like their witch, all right.

"Symbols, what kind of symbols? Uh, anything like this?" Sam asked, pulling out a bag with the silver coin.

"Yeah, yeah, I think that might have been one of them." Don nodded, scanning the coin.

"You know where Tracy is now?" Dean asked.

"I would imagine her apartment." He said as if it was something everyone should know.

"Her apartment?" Elena questioned

"Yeah, she got here about a year ago, alone, as I understood it, as an emancipated teen. God only knows what her parents were like." Don said.

"Hmm." Dean nodded.

"Thank you for your time." Elena said with a smile as they turned to walk out of the room.

"Did you find anything in Tracy's locker?" Elena asked Sam, looking up at him as they walked.

"Nothing. Just normal books and stuff. Not anything that would point to her location. I guess we'd better try her apartment." Sam said.

"You two go, I'll stay here and ask Tracy's friends if they know anything." Elena suggested.

"Sounds good. Meet us back at the motel?" Dean asked as Elena veered off into the office to request that they call Tracy's friends to the office so that she could talk to them.

"Sounds good." She nodded, waving goodbye as she walked into the office.

* * *

An hour later, Elena was walking up to the motel with her heels in one hand and a coffee from Starbucks in the other. Sam and Dean were just getting out of the Impala.

"So?" she asked, walking up to them.

"Tracy was nowhere we could find. Any luck with her friends?" Sam questioned.

"Luck is not our style. Her friends don't know where she is." Elena shrugged as they turned to walk towards their room.

"It's like the bitch popped a broomstick." Dean groaned.

Elena looked forward to see a kid dressed as an astronaut walking up to them with a plastic pumpkin in his hands.

"She could be making the third sacrifice any time." Sam reminded them desperately.

"Yes, thank you Sam." Dean said, rolling his eyes at the reminder

"Trick or treat." The kid said when he reached them, holding up the bucket of candy.

"This is a motel." Dean informed the kid.

"So?" he shrugged.

"So we don't have any candy." Dean said, a bit annoyed.

"No, we have a ton in the uh…" Sam began, pointing back at the Impala.

"We did, but it's gone." Dean said quickly, looking slightly guilty. "Sorry kid, we can't help ya."

"I want candy." The young boy said.

"Well, I think you've had enough." Dean chuckled, referring to the kid's chubbiness.

The kid narrowed his eyes to slits and glared at Dean, who looked taken aback by the ferociousness of the glare. Finally the kid moved past Dean, shoving him as Dean put his hands up. Elena watched with a raised eyebrow and a slight smile as the kid walked away. If only Dean knew how similar he acted to that little kid when he wanted candy or pie. They heard a shout and ran into the room that Sam had opened and gone into. Sam had his gun in his hands and was pointing it at a dark-skinned man who was turned away from them and staring out the window. Elena's eyes darted around and she caught sight of Castiel leaning against the wall.

"Sam… it's ok." She said, laying a hand on his arm as she gestured to Cas.

"Sam, Dean, Elena." Castiel nodded as he strode forward to stand in front of them.

"What are you doing here, Cas?" Elena questioned.

The angel flinched as she spoke and she wondered why he had an adverse reaction to her calling him by the name that they all called him now.

"I know that I did not stick around for long last time we saw each other. It is good that you are all right, Elena. It is also good that Sam did not use his powers to exorcise you of the demon. We glad that you have ceased your extracurricular activities." Cas nodded, sounding far too formal for their understanding.

"Let's keep it that way." the man by the window finally spoke.

"Yeah, okay, chuckles." Dean scoffed, looking at the mysterious man before looking back at Cas. "Who's your friend?"

"This the raising of Samhain, have you stopped it?" Cas asked, not paying attention to Dean's question.

"Why?" Elena questioned.

"Have you located the witch?" the angel asked a bit desperately, his eyes flashing back to the other man.

"Yes, we've located the witch." Dean said, nodding.

"And is the witch dead?" Cas asked.

"No, but…" Sam began.

"… we know who it is." Elena finished.

Castiel turned and walked to the table, picking something up.

"Apparently the witch knows who you are too." He said, turning to face them and holding it out.

It was a hex bag. Elena's blood ran cold as she thought of what could have happened to them if the angel hadn't found the bag.

"This was inside the wall of your room. If we hadn't found it, surely one or all of you would be dead. Do you know where the witch is now?" Cas asked, his eyes wide and imploring.

Elena watched as Dean and Sam exchanged a wary look.

"We're working on it." Dean said.

"That's unfortunate." Cas replied quickly, his eyes staring off into space.

"What do you care?" Elena questioned, staring at him.

"The raising of Samhain is one of the 66 seals." He said, turning to face them once again.

"So this is about your buddy Lucifer." Dean realized.

"Lucifer is no friend of ours." The mysterious man said, still gazing out the window.

"It's just an expression." Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"Lucifer cannot rise. The breaking of the seal must be prevented at all costs." Cas said, stepping forward.

"Okay, great, well now that you're here, why don't you tell us where the witch is, we'll gank her and everybody goes home." Dean shrugged.

"We are not omniscient. This witch is very powerful, she's cloaked even our methods." Cas said, sounding a bit ashamed.

"Okay, well we already know who she is, so if we work together…" Sam began to say.

"Enough of this." the other man said, cutting Sam off.

"Okay, who are you and why should I care?" Dean demanded, turning to glare at him.

The man finally turned from the window to look at them all with sharp eyes.

"This is Uriel, he's what you might call a… specialist." Cas said, his eyes downcast as he spoke.

The man that they realized was also an angel began to walk towards him.

"What kind of specialist?" Dean asked.

Uriel turned his gaze upon Castiel and the angel lifted his head as if resigned to something.

"What are you gonna do?" Elena questioned, eyeing him warily.

"You… uh, all of you… you need to leave this town immediately." Cas said evasively.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"Because we're about to destroy it." Cas said without missing a beat, looking between all of them.

Sam and Dean exchanged a worried glance as Elena's mouth fell open. That was the last thing she expected to hear from the angels.

"Cas…" she sighed.

"So this is your plan, you're gonna smite the whole friggin' town?" Dean demanded, angry at this point.

"We're out of time. This witch has to die, the seal must be saved." Cas explained.

"There are a thousand people here." Elena said pleadingly, trying to reason with the angel that she thought better of

"One thousand two hundred fourteen." Uriel corrected her, looking a bit smug.

Elena never thought that she would think the words, 'I want to punch this angel' but she was thinking them at that exact moment.

"And you're willing to kill them all?" Sam questioned, staring between Castiel and Uriel

"This isn't the first time I've… purified a city." Uriel said as if it was something he did between lunch and dinner.

"Look, I understand this is regrettable…" Cas began.

"Regrettable?" Dean interrupted, scoffing angrily.

"We have to hold the line. Too many seals have broken already." Cas said.

"So you screw the pooch on some seals and this town has to pay the price?" Dean growled.

"It's the lives of one thousand against the lives of six billion. There's a bigger picture here." Castiel said, looking around at all of them.

"Right, cause you're bigger picture kind of guys." Elena snapped, as angry as Dean at this point.

"Lucifer cannot rise. He does and hell rises with him. Is that something that you're willing to risk?" Castiel said, stepping closer to them.

"We'll stop this witch before she summons anyone. Your seal won't be broken and no one has to die." Sam said, almost begging with the angels.

"We're wasting time with these mud monkeys." Uriel said emotionlessly.

Castiel turned to look at Uriel.

"I'm sorry, but we have our orders." He said, turning away from them.

"No, you can't do this, you're angels, I mean aren't you supposed to… you're supposed to show mercy." Sam said, sounding extremely disappointed.

"Says who?" Uriel shot back with a smirk.

"We have no choice." Castiel said quickly, obviously trying not to anger them too much.

"Of course you have a choice. I mean, come on, what? You've never questioned a crap order, huh? What are you both, just a couple of hammers?" Dean demanded.

"Look, even if you can't understand it, have faith. The plan is just." Cas said, looking back at Dean.

"How can you even say that?" Elena asked, crossing her arms and looking at him with a furrowed brow.

"Because it comes from heaven, that makes it just."

"Oh, it must be nice, to be so sure of yourselves." Dean said icily, glaring between Castiel and Uriel.

"Tell me something, Dean, when your father gave you an order, didn't you obey?" Cas asked.

Dean took a moment, staring at Castiel as if he was sizing him up. For a second, Elena almost thought he was going to agree with the angels after Cas brought up his father.

"Well sorry boys, looks like the plans have changed." Dean said finally, much to her relief.

"You think you can stop us?" Uriel scoffed.

Finally having enough, Dean walked up to stand in Uriel's face, his own face pissed as hell.

"No, but if you're gonna smite this whole town, then you're gonna have to smite us with it, because we are not leaving. See, you went to the trouble of busting me out of hell. I figure I'm worth something to the man upstairs. So you wanna waste me, go ahead, see how he digs that." he challenged, raising an eyebrow at the angel.

"I will drag you out of here myself." Uriel threatened, narrowing his eyes at Dean.

"Yeah, but you'll have to kill me, then we're back to the same problem. I mean, come on, you're gonna wipe out a whole town for one little witch. Sounds to me like you're compensating for something." Elena fought back a smile at the older Winchester brother's accusation.

Dean turned back to look Castiel.

"We can do this. We will find that witch and we will stop the summoning." He assured the angel.

"Castiel! I will not let these peop…" Uriel began to argue.

"Enough!" Cas said as he held up his hand to stop Uriel from talking.

He stared at Dean for a moment before his eyes flickered over to Elena and took in her pleading look.

"I suggest you move quickly." He said before him and Uriel disappeared from the room.

They ran out to the Impala, not wasting any time on standing around. They all stopped short when they saw the eggs that covered the hood and the doors. Elena and Sam turned slowly to look at Dean, whose eyes were wide at seeing his baby. His face turned slightly red and his jaw clenched. Elena slowly walked to the passenger side with Sam as Dean walked around to the driver's door. As they climbed in, they saw Dean turn to glare around.

"Astronaut!" he shouted vengefully, making Elena fight back a laugh.

When he finally did climb into the car, he looked over to see Sam staring down at the hex bag

"What?" Dean asked.

"Nothing." Sam mumbled, taking a deep breath as they sat in the parking lot. "I thought they'd be different."

"Who, the angels?" Dean questioned.

"I just… I mean, I thought they'd be righteous." Sam shrugged, shaking his head as if the thought were ridiculous now.

"Well, they are righteous, I mean, that's kinda the problem. Of course there's nothing more dangerous than some asshole who thinks he's on a holy mission." Dean said.

Elena watched as the brother's conversed, not wanting to get in the middle of it because, honestly, this was the closest she'd seen them since she personally met them. She didn't want to interrupt that.

"But, I mean, this is God? And Heaven? This is what I've been praying to?" the younger Winchester sighed, obviously disappointed.

"Look man, I know you're into the whole God thing, you know, Jesus on a tortilla and stuff like that. But just because there's a couple of bad apples doesn't mean the whole barrel's rotten. I mean, for all we know, God hates these jerks. Don't give up on this stuff, is all I'm saying. Babe Ruth was a dick but baseball's still a beautiful game." Dean assured him.

Elena smiled at the way Dean spoke to Sam. He may not have thought so, but he was an excellent older brother.

Sam bit his cheek, still disappointed as he opened the hex bag and looked at the contents. He picked up the charred bone as Dean started the car.

"Well, are you gonna figure out a way to find this witch, or are you just gonna sit there fingering your bone?" Dean asked.

After a moment, Sam made a face as he pinched the bone between his fingers.

"You know how much heat it would take to char a bone like this?" he questioned.

"No." Dean said, shaking his head.

"A lot, I mean, more than a fire or some kitchen oven." Sam explained, dropping it back in the bag and turning to look at Dean.

"Okay, Betty Crocker, what does that mean?" Dean asked, pulling out onto the street.

"It means we make a stop… we need to go back to the high school." Sam said.

* * *

When they got to the high school, they had to sneak into the door after Sam picked the lock. Luckily, as it was a small town, there wasn't a security guard at the high school. They immediately headed for the art room and, when they got there, Dean went to inspect the kilns as Sam went to Don Harding's desk.

"So Tracy used the kiln to char the bone, what's the big deal?" Dean asked as he walked over.

Elena leaned against a table watching them silently, thinking about how no one could possibly figure out that Tracy was using the kiln.

"That hex bag turned up in our room, not after we talked to Tracy…" Sam said, looking up at Dean.

"… after we talked to the teacher." Elena realized.

Sam looked down, noticing a locked drawer on Don's desk.

"Hey…" he said, pointing to it.

Elena stood and walked over as Sam grabbed a hammer off of the desk and pounded at it until the lock broke off. Then he reached down and opened the drawer, all of them leaning in too see what would be in there. A bowl of both charred and not charred bones sat on the top of a bunch of papers with strange writing on them.

"My God, those are all from children." Sam sighed, looking down with wide eyes.

"And I'm guessing he's not saving them for the dog." Dean grumbled.

After that revelation, they hurried over to the address on Don's file. Instead of bothering to knock or ring the doorbell, Dean just broke it down and they all pulled out their guns as they ran inside. They could hear faint talking from below them and began to search around for a set of stairs leading to the basement. When they got down there, they saw Tracy Davis tied from the ceiling on a rope screaming and struggling to get free. Don was standing in front of her with a knife about to stab her. Dean immediately raised his gun and shot the man three times, causing his body to fall to the ground. Sam rushed forward and untied Tracy as Dean checked for Don's pulse.

"Thank you, he was gonna kill me! Ugh, that sick son of a bitch. I mean, did you see what he was doing? Did you hear him?" Tracy demanded, looking down at his body with disgust. "How sloppy his incantation was?"

Dean and Sam reacted slowly, just looking up at her with surprise but Elena's gun was already raised again.

"My brother…" Tracy sighed, looking up at them as the brothers caught on and drew their guns once again.

"Always was a little dim." She said, picking up her hand and throwing Dean and Sam back into the wall as they writhed in pain.

"Hey!" Elena shouted, taking aim with her gun.

It flew out of her hands before it could fire and Tracy narrowed her eyes at her.

"He was gonna make me the final sacrifice, his idea, but now, that honor goes to him. Our master's return? The spellwork's a two man job you understand, so for six hundred years I had to deal with that pompous son of a bitch. Planning, preparing, unbearable." She whined, staring at Elena as if she thought that she would understand.

Tracy knelt next to Don and picked up the knife and the chalice that he'd been holding in preparation for the sacrifice.

"The whole time I wanted to rip his face off." Tracy growled, digging the knife into one of the bullet wounds and holding the chalice out to catch the blood.

Elena knelt beside the boys as they continued to writhe in pain.

"And you get him with a gun, uh, love that." Tracy giggled, standing up and walking to the altar.

"You know, back in the day, this was the one day you kept your children inside. Well tonight you'll all see what Halloween really is." She said, looking down at the set up.

She began to recite another incantation and Sam began crawling to Don's body. He put his hand in the blood and began to smear it on his face.

"What are you doing?" Dean hissed, clutching at Elena's hand as they looked on in confusion.

"Just follow my lead." Sam said, spreading blood on both of their faces as well.

They moved away from each other and Sam instructed Elena to lie down as well. She did so, right next to Dean. The ground began to crack as Tracy recited the incantation and they heard rather than saw the demon rise from the ground. They had failed.

"My love." they heard Tracy sigh happily.

"You've aged." Samhain said, his voice deeper than Don's

"This face… I can't fool you." she said unhappily.

"Your beauty is beyond time."

Suddenly they heard a sickening crack.

"Whore." Samhain said emotionlessly.

He turned and sniffed the air for a moment. Elena could feel his eyes on them as she kept her eyes closed and her body perfectly still. When he walked out of the room and shut the door, they finally sat up slowly.

"What the hell was that?" Dean whispered.

"Halloween lore. People used to wear masks to hide from him, so I gave it a shot." Sam shrugged, looking at them.

"You gave it a shot?!" Dean demanded, not believing that they took a big chance on Sam's 'shot'.

"Shh! He saved our lives! Now we have to go save everyone else's." Elena snapped, standing up and grabbing a towel to wipe her face off.

* * *

"Where the hell are we gonna find this mook?" Dean questioned as they walked towards the Impala across the street from the house.

"Where would you go to raise other dark forces of the night?" Sam questioned, looking over at them.

"The cemetery." Elena suggested.

"Yeah." Sam nodded as they got in the Impala and drove off.

"So, this demon's pretty powerful." Sam said as they drove down the road towards the only cemetary in town.

"Yeah." Dean nodded.

"Might take more than the usual weapons."

Elena and Dean both glanced at Sam as they realized what he was talking about.

"Sam, no, you're not using your psychic whatever. Don't even think about it. Ruby's knife is enough." Dean said, shaking his head stubbornly.

"Why?" Sam asked, sounding desperate.

"Well because the angels said so for one." Dean said.

"I thought you said they were a bunch of fanatics." Sam sighed, looking over at his brother.

"Well they happen to be right about this one." Elena jumped in, not wanting to get Sam in trouble with Castiel or anyone else.

"I don't know, Dean, it doesn't seem like they're right about much." Sam shrugged.

"Well then forget the angels, okay? You said yourself, these powers, it's like playing with fire." Dean said.

Elena grabbed the knife from the backseat and handed it to Sam.

"Please." She pleaded with wide eyes.

* * *

When they got to the cemetary, they immediately went down into a crypt where they heard screams. A bunch of teenagers were locked in one of the rooms and blood was spattered all over the floor.

"Help them." Sam said, gesturing to the teen's as he turned to run down the hallway.

"Dude, you're not going off alone." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Do it!" Sam demanded, turning to run off.

"I'll go with him, take care of this." Elena said, pulling out her gun and following Sam at a sprint.

After a few minutes of running, they slowed to walking and were looking around to see if they could catch any sight of the demon. When they turned a corner, they saw him standing in front of them facing the far wall. Sam motioned for Elena to stop and began to walk forward slowly, Ruby's knife in one hand and a gun in the other. When he got close, Samhain whirled around and pointed his hand at Sam, white light blasting out of it.

"Yeah, that demon ray gun stuff? It doesn't work on me." Sam shrugged.

The Samhain let out a frustrated howl and launched at Sam, who punched the demon as they began to fight. Elena didn't know what to do. They were too close together for her to shoot the Samhain and too entangled for her to pull them apart. The Samhain gained an advantage and shoved Sam against the wall by his neck. Elena rushed forward, throwing the gun down as she seized the back of his shirt and threw him across the room. Unfortunately, this motion caused the knife to go flying across the room.

Sam and Elena both launched for it as Samhain stumbled forward again. Sam grabbed it and sliced into the demon's arm, causing his skin to sizzle. Samhain growled inhumanly and grabbed Sam by the throat once more, throwing him across the room and into the wall once more. Elena lunged for the knife but the demon grabbed her arm and proppeled her into the wall headfirst. She collapsed to the ground and clutched at her now bleeding head as Samhain started forward to attack Sam once more. Before she knew it, Sam's hand was raised and smoke began pouring out of the body.

"No!" she cried, knowing what Sam was doing and desperate to get him to stop.

Blood began leaking out of Sam's nose as he struggled to maintain his power. His hand flew to his head and he began letting out grunts of pain. Finally the smoke stopped, descending into the ground as Don's body collapsed to the floor. Elena looked on with devastated eyes as Sam collapsed to his knees. She ran to him and supported him, pressing her hand to his head to heal him first before she healed herself.

"Please… don't…" he began, out of breath after the exorcism.

"It's ok." She murmured, concentrating on healing him.

"Don't tell Dean." Sam managed to gasp out, looking up at her with pleading eyes.

Elena stared down at him with wide eyes, not sure how to react to the request. On the one hand, she wanted to keep Sam safe and she wanted the brothers' relationship to continue to repair itself. On the other hand, she had no desire to lie to Dean.

"Promise me you won't do it again." The words slipped out of her mouth before she could help it. "Promise me that you will never use those powers again and I will keep my mouth shut."

Sam nodded quicky as they stumbled to their feet.

"I promise." He sighed, pulling her into a grateful hug.

Elena hated it but, for some reason, she had a feeling that Sam wouldn't keep that promise.

* * *

Elena and Sam walked around the room packing up different things. Dean had gone to get some fresh air at the park across the street so they were left alone. They were steadily avoiding each other's gazes as an awkward silence filled the room.

"Tomorrow." Uriel's voice came out of nowhere.

They both jumped at the sound of his voice that interrupted the silence and turned to stare at him as he sat casually in a chair.

"November 2nd, it's an anniversary for you." he said, staring at Sam.

"What are you doing here?" Sam demanded

"It's the day Azazel killed your mother, and 22 years later your girlfriend too. It must be difficult to bear, yet you so brazenly use the power he gave you. His profane blood pumping through your veins." Uriel said.

"Excuse me?" Sam questioned, looking pained at the reminder.

"You were told not to use your abilities." Uriel

"And what was he supposed to do? That demon would have killed us both, and Dean and everyone." Elena defended him, stepping forward stubbornly.

"You were told not to." Uriel reiterated, ignoring Elena.

"If Samhain had gotten loose in this town…" Sam began.

"You've been warned, twice now."

"You know? My brother was right about you, you are dicks." Sam snapped, having enough of Uriel.

"The only reason you're still alive, Sam Winchester, is because you've been useful. But the moment that ceases to be true, the second you become more trouble than you're worth, one word. One, and I will turn you to dust. As for your brother, tell him that maybe he should climb off that high horse of his. Ask Dean what he remembers from hell." Elena's eyes widened at his words and Sam looked confused.

Uriel turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"And you, doppelganger, need to remember what side you're on and who made you." he said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, glaring at him.

"Oh Castiel hasn't told you. How sweet." Uriel said before disappearing.

* * *

Elena walked outside to get away from Sam and his thoughtful gaze. Dean was going to have to talk to him about hell before he found out from someone else. But then again, Sam couldn't really say much about being truthful at the moment and neither could Elena. She spotted Dean on a bench at the park and sighed, walking across the street. When she came up behind him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her cheek against his. They both felt, rather than heard the angel appear next to them.

"Let me guess you're here for the 'I told you so'." Dean guessed, not taking his eyes off the children as his hands came up to wrap around Elena's arms comfortingly.

"No." Cas said.

"Well, good, cause I'm really not that interested."

"I am not here to judge you, Dean." The angel said.

"Then why are you here?" Dean demanded, both him and Elena turning to look at Cas.

"Our orders…" he began.

"Yeah, you know, I've had about enough of these orders of yours." Dean snapped.

"Our orders were not to stop the summoning of Samhain, they were to do whatever you told us to do." Cas said quickly, staring at Dean.

"Your orders were to follow my orders?" Dean questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"It was a test, to see how you would perform under... battlefield conditions, you might say."

"It was a witch, not the Tet Offensive. So I, uh, failed your test, huh? I get it. But you know what? If you would have waved that magic time-traveling wand of yours and we had to do it all over again, I'd make the same call. 'Cause see, I don't know what's gonna happen when these seals are broken, hell I don't even know what's gonna happen tomorrow. But what I do know is, that this, here? These kids, the swings, the trees, all of it is still here because of my brother and me." Dean said defensively, sounding proud of the job they did.

Elena kissed the top of his head comfortingly before turning back to Cas.

"You misunderstand me, Dean, I'm not like you think. I was praying that you would choose to save the town." Cas said, causing Elena to feel a little bit better about the angel once again.

"You were?" Dean asked, cocking his head to the side with confusion.

"These people, they're all my father's creations. They're works of art, and yet, even though you stopped Samhain, the seal was broken and we are one step closer to hell on earth, for all creation. Now that's not an expression, Dean, it's literal. You of all people should appreciate what that means. Can I tell you two something if you promise not to tell another soul?" Cas asked.

"Okay." They both said slowly.

"I'm not a… hammer as you say. I have questions, I have doubts. I don't know what is right and what is wrong anymore, whether you passed or failed here. But in the coming months you will have more decisions to make. I don't envy the weight that's on your shoulders, Dean. I truly don't." Cas said, shaking his head.

Elena felt Dean sigh heavily underneath her as Castiel shot him a sympathetic look. When Dean turned to look out at the kids again, Elena following his eyeline, they both heard Castiel disappear.

* * *

Instead of driving the whole twenty-six hours that it would have taken to get back to Sioux Falls, they stopped at a motel halfway between the towns. When they checked in and got their room, Sam remained in there for about ten minutes staring at the wall before he jumped up and made up an excuse about needing beer. He grabbed the Impala keys and practically shot out of the room. Elena looked after him with a guilty look on her face as she sat on the couch. Dean stood from the table where he'd been sitting and crossed over to her.

When he sat next to her, he immediately gathered her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers. Elena responded and ran her fingers through his hair, pressing her body to his. It happened quickly but Elena was all of the sudden lying on the couch with Dean on top of her peppering kisses onto her neck. When his hands went to her shirt and began to pull it up, flashes of Sam exorcising the demon went through her mind, bringing on a rush of guilty feelings. Elena gasped and sat up, pushing Dean away as she tugged her shirt down.

"Are you all right?" Dean asked, panicking as he thought he'd hurt her.

"I… I'm fine." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair as she swung her legs off of the couch and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees.

Dean reached down and rubbed her back soothingly as she worked to catch her breath. His touch only awakened more guilt in her and she flinched away, regretting the hurt look on his face immediately.

"I… I'm so sorry. I just don't… don't feel good." She sighed, standing up and turning in a circle a few times before heading for the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it before sitting on the toilet as she began to hyperventilate.

It was going to be very hard to keep Sam's secret as she promised to do.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! Please review!**

**A few things:**

**1. It's that time again. Tell me any new ideas or scenes you want to see in this story and I will work hard to make it happen. Review this chapter and this chapter only with your ideas.**

**2. Either the next chapter or the chapter after that will introduce Anna.**

**3. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to helenamtavares, DrawingMyHeartOut, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, neontreeslover, Dark Alana, chiwi, LineChokor, Hollywood 17, MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson, Meowgli, RHatch89, slayerdiaries, Beautiful Lie 5105, and MaddAlice for reviewing! Love you all!**

**A few things:**

**1. Sorry guys, it's going to get more serious before it gets funny again. I tried to put a funny relaxed scene in this chapter with Elena but it's hard to write in such a serious chapter.**

**2. Also, it's going to be a while before I actually write a lemon for Dean and Elena. Remember that they've only known each other for about three months. I really don't want to rush into this and screw the story up because of it.**

* * *

"Anna? Do you know where you are?" the wide eyed girl sitting on the bed shook her head.

"You're at the Connor Beverly Behavioral Medicine Center. Do you know why you're here? Do you remember what you did?" the girl shrugged, still not talking.

"You were hysterical. It took four people to restrain you." the psychologist said, looking at the pale redheaded woman with concern.

"I was trying to warn them." The young woman said, looking down at her fingers.

"Warn who?" the other woman asked.

"Everyone. Forget it. It was stupid." Anna shrugged off, turning to look out the window.

"What were you trying to warn them about?"

"Look... I get it. You think I'm nuts. If I were you, I'd think I was nuts. But it's all true." Anna said desperately.

"It's okay. You can tell me. I'm here to listen." The psychologist said.

"The end... is coming. The apocalypse."

Anna looked up at her psychologist with wide eyes, pleading with her to believe her.

"The apocalypse. Like in the Bible?" the professional questioned

"Kind of. I mean, same bottom line. This demon, Lilith, is trying to break the 66 seals to free Lucifer from Hell. Lucifer... Will bring the apocalypse. So... Smoke 'em if you got 'em." Anna explained.

She broke off when she heard a distant whispering.

"Anna?" the psychologist asked, bringing her attention back.

"Sorry." Anna said quickly, looking down at her hands once more.

"What were you doing?"

"Nothing. Just listening."

"So, you were saying that there are, uh, 66 of these seals in the world?" the psychologist prodded.

"No. No. There are about 600 possible seals, and Lilith only has to break 66 of them, and no one knows which 66 she's gonna break. That's why it's nearly impossible to stop her. And that's why the angels are losing. That's why we're all gonna die." Anna stressed, looking panicked.

A hospital attendant came the room shortly after the psychologist left, telling Anna to get some sleep.

"Time for your meds, Anna. Anna?" the attendant said from the foot of the bed, trying to get her attention as she stared out the window.

Anna turned around and a horrified looked came over her face when she noticed the attendant.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" the attendant asked with a saccharine voice.

"Your face… what happened to your face?" Anna stammered, her face draining of all the color it had left.

"I know." The man said, grinning at her.

His eyes turned black and he shrugged.

"I'm downright kissable." He said, starting forward to attack her.

Anna turned to a chest of drawers and concentrated. They flew across the room and pinned the attendant agaisnt the wall, knocking human unconscious. Silently, she slid past him and out of the room, running down the hallway as fast as she could.

* * *

Elena turned to survey the bar, clutching the beer in her hand as her eyes flashed across every face in the place.

"Hey baby." A voice said from beside her.

She turned to see a drunken twenty-something man grinning sloppily at her. He reeked of at least five different alcoholic beverages.

"Not happening, sweetheart." She said with a roll of her eyes.

"Come on. I know you want me." the man said, slurring his words so bad that it made it hard to understand him.

"No." Elena said simply, her eyes falling on Sam and Dean beside a pool table.

"You are just playing hard to get. It's ok. I like the chase." He said, reaching out and sliding his hand up Elena's jean clad thigh.

She reached out and grabbed his wrist, squeezing it so hard that she could feel the bones grinding together. The man let out a squeal and the rest of the bar turned to look at them.

"Keep your hands off of me." she whispered in his ear, throwing his hand away so that she wouldn't break his wrist as she wanted to.

Then she stood and walked over to the pool table where Dean and Sam were talking to the man that Sam had been playing pool with. She knew that they were trying to hustle him.

"Brian, come on, man, just one more. Just… just give me a chance to win it back." Sam pleaded drunkenly, waving his arms wildly.

"It's your cash." Brian shrugged, looking amused.

"Excuse me. My brother's a little sauced to be making bets." Dean stepped in, looking at Sam with a furrowed brow.

"He insisted." Brian shrugged.

"Hey, but you've already taken, what, two bills off him? I'm just saying." The older brother said, moving to pull Sam away from the table.

"Hey, shut up, Dean. I'm fine." Sam said, pushing him off.

"No, you're not fine, Sam. You're drunk!" Elena said with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey, if you want to make it real interesting, throw in a night with this girl here." the disgusting man said, winking at Elena.

She turned to glare at him, her entire body screaming at her to attack him.

"Not happening." Dean growled, pulled out of his act for a moment to drag Elena behind him and away from the pig's approving eyes.

"Hey, sorry man. I didn't know she was with you." Brian said, raising his hands in surrender.

"Let's make it five hundred." Sam slurred, slamming more money down on the table.

"Five hundred?" Dean demanded, turning to stare at his brother with wide eyes.

"Sure." He shrugged, throwing Dean a sloppy grin.

"Five hundred. Your break." Brian said, looking down to count the bills.

Sam and Dean shared a completely sober look and Dean winked knowledgeably at Sam. Elena fought the smile that threatened to take over her face. They were far too good at this and Elena had to wonder how old they were when they started with this act. Sam leaned down to break and sank several balls at once. When his eyes lifted to look at Brian, they fell on something else instead.

"Keep the money." He breathed, dropping the cue and walking away.

Elena watched with wide eyes as he walked away.

"Keep the money? What…" Dean began, looking after Sam.

They both caught sight of the brunette girl standing in the corner, watching as Sam walked over to her.

"I'll play you instead." Elena offered, stepping around Dean to walk up to the man, smiling at him.

"That wasn't the bet." Brian began to argue.

"Well honestly it's been forever since I've played. Maybe you can help me remember how." She shrugged, picking up Sam's cue and leaning over the table to grab the chalk, causing her shirt to ride up and give a good view of her midriff.

"Sounds good." The man said quickly as Dean walked off to confront Sam and Ruby.

Elena smiled up at Brian as they began playing. Every time she sank a ball, she squealed and jumped up and down, raising her arms to make her shirt ride up once more. She was being so ridiculously bimbo-like and innocent that the man couldn't help but cheer for her as well when she continued to beat him. Dean and Sam turned to walk back, Sam with an interested look and Dean with an angry one, just as she got down to the black eight ball. Her eyes flickered up to them as she surveyed the table, pretending to be deciding how to win the game. Her face broke out into a wide grin as she looked at them.

"Look! I'm winning!" she exclaimed dramatically, gesturing to the table.

"We can see that." Dean said gruffly, glaring down at it.

Elena turned to give Brian a small smile before she lined up her last shot. It was an easy one and the eight ball flew into the pocket easily. Elena squealed loudly and threw herself into Brian's arms strategically. His arms wrapped around her and she could practically feel his perverted thoughts dirtying her. But it was part of the act and she'd just won five hundred more dollars for them. When she pulled away, the man's hand drifted down to her ass and squeezed. Elena pretended like she didn't notice although she could see the angry looks on Dean and Sam's faces as they didn't even pretend not to notice the gesture. Instead of addressing Brian again, Elena bounded forward and threw herself into Dean's arms, wrapping her legs around his waist.

"I won." She said proudly, her arms around his neck.

"I see that." he said with a cocked eyebrow.

"I think… that we should go celebrate." She said huskily, just loud enough for Brian to hear.

"Hmm… is that what you think?" Dean said, keeping up the act as he gazed at her.

Elena nodded, biting her lip before capturing his lips in a slow, sensual kiss. When she jumped down, she turned to see Sam taking the money from a disgruntled Brian, who had no idea that he'd been had. Elena giggled and waved goodbye as they turned to leave the bar.

* * *

They were speeding down the road and Dean just finished filling her in on what Ruby said as Sam called to confirm her story.

"Can I get a copy of the missing persons report? Great. Okay. Thanks." Sam said to the phone before hanging up. "Well, Anna Milton's definitely real."

"Don't mean the case is real. And this hospital's a three-day drive." Dean said gruffly, sounding angry once again.

"We've driven further for less, Dean. You got something to say, say it." Sam sighed, looking out the window as he readied himself for whatever his bother had to say.

"Oh, I'm saying it… this sucks." Dean snapped.

"You're not pissed we're going after the girl. You're pissed Ruby threw us the tip." Sam shot back.

Elena sighed heavily, turning to stare out the window. One appearance from Ruby and it seemed that all of the progress they'd made disappeared. She wondered how Dean would react if he knew that Sam used his powers as well. She hoped that they wouldn't have to find out but knew that their luck wasn't all that great.

"Right. 'Cause as far as you're concerned, the hell-bitch is practically family. Yeah, boy, something major must've happened while I downstairs, 'cause I come back, and… and you're BFF with a demon?" the older brother growled.

"I told you, Dean, she helped me go after Lilith." Sam replied icily.

"Well, thanks for the thumbnail… real vivid. You want to fill in a little detail?" Dean demanded.

"Sure, Dean, let's trade stories. You first. How was Hell? Don't spare the details."

They all fell silent at Sam's words and Elena bit her lip. It seemed as though both brothers had secrets they were keeping and Elena was the only one who knew them. For once, she did not like being the one in the know.

* * *

As always, they immediately checked into a motel when they reached their destination. They had all slept on the drive so they were ready to go out and find out what was going on with Anna Milton. Elena immediately put on a professional outfit after she took a shower. When Sam went in the bathroom to get ready as Elena sat at the desk to pull her hair up into a French twist while looking in the mirror, she observed Dean pulling on his white button down shirt out of the corner of her eye. After making sure that her hair looked perfect, Elena stood to put her dress on.

She ducked into the kitchen that was around a little corner before pulling off the motel robe and pulling on the black and white business dress that came to a little below mid-thigh. She walked out, holding it up after attempting to zip it up several times and failing.

"Can you help me?" she asked, looking at Dean as he tucked the shirt into his black suit pants.

He turned to look at her for a moment with a strange look on his face before he nodded and walked over to her. Elena turned around and stood perfectly still as he pulled the zipper up. When his hands hovered over her after it was zipped, she felt warm shivers spread throughout her body at his mere presence behind her.

"That kiss in the bar was the first time we've kissed in a week and a half." He said, his voice attempting to sound gruff and uncaring but Elena could hear the hurt in it.

She bit her lip, her guilty feelings at unintentionally pushing him away adding to the guilt she felt at not telling him about Sam.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, her eyes dropping to the ground.

"I just want to…" Dean was cut off by the door opening.

They both turned to see Sam walk out in his suit, looking ready to go. Elena sighed as Dean turned to walk away. She turned to her suitcase and pulled out her black heels and a black belt to put around her waist. Then she shrugged on a jacket and grabbed a purse with the essentials in it. When she turned back, Dean had pulled on his suit jacket and they were waiting for her.

"We ready?" Sam asked, his eyes looking between Elena and Dean, hoping that maybe his absence allowed them to talk a bit.

He drew it out as long as he could but he had to come out because he knew that any longer would have looked suspicious. Sam wasn't a stupid guy, he knew that there was something wrong between them and he knew that the timing wasn't a coincidence. He was getting in the middle of their relationship and Dean didn't even know it. Sam knew that it had been unfair to ask Elena to keep something so big from Dean but could he get the courage up to tell Dean himself so that it stopped torturing Elena?

* * *

"Of course I want to help however I can." The psychologist said as they stood in the reception area of the psychiatric ward.

"Now, the orderly has no recollection of Anna's escape?" Sam questioned, writing on a small pad of paper.

"Apparently, she knocked him unconscious. The blow caused some amnesia. He doesn't even remember coming into her room." the woman said, nodding as she relayed the facts.

"That's a hell of a right hook to knock out a guy that's got eighty pounds on her." Dean scoffed, sounding skeptical as he messed with a pen that was in his hands.

"We think she may have planned this, waited behind the door." The psychologist informed him.

"Right. Uh, you mentioned Anna's illness was recent." Sam said, changing the subject.

"Two months ago, she was happy, well-adjusted, journalism major, lots of friends - Bright future."

"So, what happened… she just... flipped?" Dean asked.

"Well, that's the tragedy of schizophrenia. Within weeks, Anna was overtaken by delusions." The doctor explained.

"What kind of delusions?" Elena prodded

"She thought demons were everywhere." The woman said, handing a sketchbook over to Sam.

Elena and Dean leaned over his shoulder to take a look at the demonic sketches.

"Interesting." Sam said.

"It's not uncommon for our patients to believe that monsters are real." The woman said, looking between.

"Well, that… that's just batty." Dean said, gesturing to the pages.

Sam turned the pages and they all raised their eyebrows when they read 'Raising of the Witnesses' and on the next page 'Samhain the next seal is broken'.

"That's Revelations." Dean said, looking at Sam and Elena

"Since when does the Book of Revelations have jack-o'-lanterns?" the psychologist scoffed.

"It's a, uh, it's a little-known translation." Dean with an unconvincing smile.

"Well, Anna's father was a church deacon. When she became ill, her paranoia took on religious overtones. She was convinced the devil was about to rise up and end the world. I hope you find her. It's dangerous for her to be out there alone right now." The woman said before getting distracted by an orderly and pulled away on other business.

* * *

It didn't take long to get to the home of Anna Milton's parents. Elena and Sam stood behind Dean as he knocked on the door to no avail. After two minutes of no answer, Dean turned to look at them.

"Maybe they're not home." he shrugged

"Both cars in the driveway." Sam pointed out.

Dean turned and stared at them before turning back to door. Taking a chance, he reached out and tried the door. To their surprise, it was unlocked.

"Mr. And Mrs. Milton?" Dean called as they walked in, drawing their guns just in case.

"We're from the sheriff's department. We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions." Sam said.

They wandered into the living room and found two bodies on the floor, Elena stopped short and stared at them. Their throats were cut and looks of pure fear were frozen on their faces. Sam bent down to check some powder on the floor near the bodies. He sniffed it and winced.

"Sulfur. The demons beat us here. Whatever the deal is with this Anna girl…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, they want her. They're not screwing around. All right, so, I'm "Girl, Interrupted," and I know the score of the apocalypse, just busted out of the nut-box... Possibly using superpowers, by the way. Where do I go?" Dean said, looking between Sam and Elena as he posed the question.

Elena looked around the room and focused on the pictures of the family. When she caught sight of one, she stopped and picked it up, squinting at it.

"Hey, do you still have those sketches from Anna's notebook?" she asked, turning to Dean.

"Yeah." He nodded, pulling them out.

"Check this out." she said, comparing one of the drawings to the picture taken of the three people in front of a church building.

"She was drawing the window of her church." Dean realized.

"Over and over. If you were religious, scared, and had demons on your ass, where would you go to feel safe?" Sam said, nodding as it made complete sense.

* * *

The church was fairly average. Elena didn't notice anything remarkable about it as they entered quietly. They'd stopped by the motel and changed before they came. Dean and Sam were in their normal clothing and Elena was in a pair of black pants, black boots, and a white plain t-shirt with a black zip up hoodie. Her hair was pulled up into a simple ponytail and she was holding a flashlight and a gun. They heard creaking and looked up, realizing that it was coming from the attic. After finding the stairs, they slowly crept up them. When they walked into the small room, Sam immediately caught sight of a cowering figure behind an old bookshelf. He nudged Dean and motioned to it.

"Anna? We're not gonna hurt you. We're here to help. My name is Sam. This is my brother, Dean." He called, lowering the gun slowly.

Elena stood in the doorway with her gun still drawn as she faced the stairs. The brothers walked forward, putting their guns in their pants most likely to reassure the girl of her safety.

"Sam? Not Sam Winchester?" a small voice said, sounding a little panicked.

"Uh, yeah." Sam said as him and Dean exchanged wary looks.

"And you're Dean. The Dean?" Anna said, stepping out of her hiding place to reveal that she was wearing a pair of pants and a white shirt with an olive colored jacket.

Her long red hair was in stark contrast to her pale skin.

"Well, yeah. The Dean, I guess." Dean said, nodding at her.

"It's really you. Oh, my god. The angels talk about you. You were in Hell, but Castiel pulled you out, and some of them think you can help save us. And some of them don't like you at all. They talk about you all the time lately. I feel like I know you." she gushed, walking forward with relief all over her face.

Elena didn't move out of the shadows, instead just observing the woman and her interaction with the brothers. She did slide her gun into her pants before turning off the flashlight.

"So, you talk to angels?" Dean questioned

"Oh, no. No, no way. Um, they probably don't even know I exist. I just kind of... overhear them." Anna said, sounding a bit guilty.

"You overhear them?" Sam asked, sounding as shocked as Dean and Elena felt.

"Yeah, they talk, and sometimes I just... hear them in my head." Anna shrugged, looking around uncomfortably.

"Like... right now?" Dean asked.

"Not right this second, but a lot. And I can't shut them out, there are so many of them."

"So, they lock you up with a case of the crazies when really you were just... tuning in to angel radio?" Dean said simply, shrugging at Sam before looking around to see where Elena was.

"Yes. Thank you." Anna breathed, sounding relieved that someone believed her.

"Anna, when did the voices start? Do you remember?" Sam asked.

"I can tell you exactly - September 18th." Anna nodded, not even having to concentrate to remember the date.

"The day I got out of Hell." Dean realized

"First words I heard, clear as a bell… 'Dean Winchester is saved.'" The redhead said, smiling him.

"What do you think?" Dean asked Sam.

"It's above my pay grade, man." Sam shrugged, looking lost.

They both looked back at Elena as she continued to just stand there. Anna finally noticed that there was someone else and her eyes widened.

"Oh my… you're… are you…" she said, unable to finish the sentence as she stared at Elena.

Elena didn't reply, unsure of what to say to that.

"You're Elena, right?" Anna finally asked.

She nodded slowly and Anna slowly walked forward, studying her closely.

"You are exactly how I imagined you to be. Some of the angels don't like Sam and Dean but they all seem to like you. Or at least, they seem to want to like you. I have never been able to figure out why you're so important. They never talk about it." Anna breathed, her eyes studying every part of Elena's body closely.

"Oh." Was all that Elena could think to say.

To say that she was shocked when Anna pulled her into a hug was an understatement.

"Thank you for coming to find me." she whispered, squeezing her tight before letting go and stepping back.

"Uh… yeah. You're welcome." Elena said, unsure of what else to say.

"Well, at least now we know why the demons want you so bad. They get a hold of you, they can hear everything the other side's cooking. You're 1-900-angel." Dean said, interrupting Anna's touchy feely moment as he stepped forward.

"Hey, um, do you know… are my parents okay? I… I didn't go home. I was afraid." Anna said, turning to look at Dean and Sam hopefully.

Before either could answer with the bad news that was written all over their faces, footsteps rushed up the stairs and Elena turned, ready to draw her gun if need be. Ruby walked into the attic and looked around.

"You got the girl. Good, let's go." Ruby said quickly, obviously in a rush.

Elena glared at her along with Dean as Anna recoiled in horror.

"Her face!" she cried

"It's okay. She's here to help." Sam assured her.

"Yeah, don't be so sure." Dean growled.

"We have to hurry." Ruby pressed them, her eyes wide as she gestured to the door.

"Why?" Dean demanded.

"Because a demon's coming… big-timer. We can fight later, Dean." The demon said, rolling her eyes at the older Winchester brother.

"Well, that's pretty convenient… showing up right when we find the girl with some bigwig on your tail?" Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"I didn't bring him here. You did." Ruby snapped, glaring at him.

"What?" Elena said, her eyes widening.

"He followed you from the girl's house. We got to go now." Ruby said, her eyes flickering over Elena before turning back to everyone else.

"Dean." Sam said, concentrating on something.

They all turned to see him pointing at a statue that was bleeding from the eyes. Elena felt a cold chill run down her spine and she knew that they were too late.

"He's here." Ruby said, staring around wildly.

Sam launched forward and grabbed Anna by the arm, shoving her into a closet not so gently.

"Okay. Stay in there. Don't move." He instructed her.

"Okay." Anna nodded.

Elena moved to stand in front of the closet protectively at the brothers' instruction as Sam pulled out a flask of holy water.

"No, Sam, you got to pull him right away." Ruby said, shaking her head.

"Whoa, hold on a sec." Dean said, holding his hands up.

"Now's not the time to bellyache about Sam going darkside. He does his thing, he exorcises that demon, or we die." Ruby said desperately, looking at Dean.

Sam sighed and put the flask away again. Elena's eyes widened as she realized that she was exactly right. Who knew if Sam ever had the intention of never using his powers again? He'd promised that he would stop the first time, didn't he? It was Ruby and her influence; it was always going to get Sam in trouble. It was always going to pull him in the wrong direction if someone didn't pull him back the other way.

"Sam! No!" Elena said, her voice too panicky for her comfort.

He turned to look at Elena with a sad look before the door slammed open and an older man walked in, his eyes entirely white instead of black. Elena remembered Dean and Sam telling her that the older, more powerful demons had white eyes. Demons like Lilith.

"Dean stop him!" she hissed.

Dean didn't look in her direction but she could see that he was holding himself back. Sam raised his hand and attempted to exorcise him. The demon simply smirked at him.

"That tickles. You don't have the juice to take me on, Sam." He scoffed, flicking his hand sending him flying down the stairs like he was a feather.

Dean yanked out the demon-killing knife with an angry glare and ran forward to attack the demon. The demon easily grabbed his arm and then a handful of Dean's jacket.

"Hello again, Dean." He said, grinning maniacally.

"Get Anna!" Ruby hissed, running towards Elena.

They both turned and Elena pulled the door open, reaching her hand out towards Anna.

"Come on, Dean. Don't you recognize me?" Elena heard the demon asked Dean as he shoved him against the wall and threw blows at his face.

Anna willingly reached out her hand and took Elena's.

"We have to get out of here." Ruby said.

"What about Sam and Dean?" Elena said, clutching Anna's hand as she hid the girl behind her.

"Alistair won't kill them. He's under orders not to." Ruby said, grabbing Elena's arm and dragging her and Anna across the room.

Elena looked back helplessly as Dean groaned the same name that Ruby called the demon. Alistair. Sam ran up past them and caught sight of them with Anna. He nodded before scooping up the knife and running into the room. Ruby pulled them out to her car and shoved them in the backseat without hesitation.

"Who was that?" Anna whimpered, looking up at the church where the shadows of the fight could be seen through the attic windows.

Ruby peeled away from the church, driving as quickly as she could onto the main road as she glanced back in the rearview mirror every few seconds. Elena's hand was still clutched in Anna's as they hurtled down the dark road. After driving for about forty-five minutes, they pulled up to a cabin. Elena and Anna walked in behind Ruby to find a sparse looking cabin with barely any furniture in it.

"We weren't followed by anyone so we'll be safe here. I'll wait about another hour to contact Dean and Sam. In the meantime, you two should both get some sleep." Ruby said, walking inside to turn on lights.

"I'm not tired." Elena said.

"I'm exhausted." Anna sighed.

They directed her to the couch and Elena sat on the floor leaning against the couch, her gun in her hands as she took out the clip and shoved it back in every few minutes.

"Can you be a little less twitchy?" Ruby hissed from where she was sitting in a broken down recliner.

"No." Elena replied.

Ruby sighed and turned to stare at her.

"You really don't like me yet you've never even really talked to me. We haven't even introduced ourselves." The demon said.

"I know you're a demon and I know you fucked up Sam's body. That's all I know and that's all I need to know."

"Did you know that Sam was trying to kill himself?" Ruby said.

Elena looked at her with wide eyes.

"Yep, after Dean went to hell. Not literally. I mean he wasn't putting a gun to his head or anything. But he was doing the next best thing. He was trying to trade places with Dean." Ruby said.

"So what? You told him you would help him get Dean back if he started using his mind to exorcise demons and put himself in danger?" Elena said.

"No, I told him I could do the next best thing. When Lilith sent Dean to hell, she possessed the body that I was using, sending me to hell as well. I was tortured for a long time and the bitch only set me free when I promised to kill Sam. Only I didn't keep that promise." Ruby said, looking at the door with a faraway look.

Elena simply stared at her.

"Sam was drunk one night after failing, yet again, to convince a demon to send him to hell instead. Myself and my guard from Lilith were waiting in his hotel room to kill him. Instead, I took his knife and killed the other demon, getting us both the hell out of there. As we drove down the road, Sam wanted to know exactly why I was helping him. I explained the torture that I experienced in hell at Lilith's hands and he still wasn't impressed. He asked if I could save Dean and when I told him no, he dropped me off at the side of the road and told me to vacate the secretary I was in or he would send me back to hell. I risked everything to save his ass more than once so I was not ready to be dropped like a piece of trash.

I went and possessed some coma girl whose spirit had left her body and met up with him again. This time I made him an offer. The offer of a lifetime. I offered to help him kill Lilith. Sam automatically assumed that I wanted him to get his psychic juices flowing to be able to do it. He was right. It was the only way I knew how to kill Lilith." Ruby explained.

"That wasn't your call." Elena snapped.

"It had to be someone's, okay? Lilith was going to keep on hunting Sam and I already knew that she was planning for the apocalypse." The demon defended herself.

"You also wanted to save your own ass."

"Would you just let me finish?" Ruby demanded.

Elena set her mouth into a tight line and stared down at the gun in her hands.

"Well I told Sam that he had to be patient… and sober… and I would help him kill Lilith. He got really frustrated when we first started so his patience was wearing thin. I knew that I had to… distract him." Ruby said, a sly smile forming on her face.

"Ruby?" Elena said, a grimace forming on her face.

"Yeah?" the demon replied, brought out of a memory by Elena's voice.

"Too much information." She said, shaking her head.

"I'm coming clean." Ruby shrugged before she continued her story.

"Well apparently my many speeches about patience didn't really work with Sam. He decided to go off on his own when he thought that he found out where Lilith was. I tried to dissuade him but he wouldn't listen to me. I followed him and found him about to be destroyed by two demons that Lilith sent in trying to trap him. I was right, he was wrong, I just want to point that out. To keep things short, I killed one of the demons that was about to rip his heart out. Then he killed the second one and it was the first time his psychic power worked." Ruby said.

Elena stared at her for a moment.

"So… you saved his life?" she asked.

Ruby shrugged and nodded her head.

"And then you embedded him with a psychic power that I witnessed make his nose bleed the other day. Congratulations, you could very possibly have given him an ability that could kill him someday." Elena snapped, still not impressed with the demon.

"He used again. When?" Ruby breathed, leaning forward.

"Samhain." Elena growled, glaring at her.

"Wow. That's the big leagues. Congrats Sammy." Ruby said.

Elena wanted to throw her through the window at her words.

"Don't you have to go warn Sam and Dean?" she said, trying to reign her temper in.

"Yep." Ruby said, standing up and looking at Elena.

"See you in a second." She said before her mouth flew open and black smoke poured out of it.

Elena stumbled to her feet and backed away, her eyes wide as the front door flew open and the smoke rushed out of the room, causing the body to drop to the floor. Anna's eyes drifted open and widened when she saw the body on the floor.

"What happened?" she said, looking up at Elena with panic in her eyes.

"Ruby went to go tell Sam and Dean where we are." Elena explained, her eyes not leaving the body as she walked forward to close the front door.

* * *

After their fight with the demon ended with them jumping through the stained glass attic window, Sam and Dean went back to the hotel to somewhat fix their very extensive injuries.

"This would be much easier if Elena were here." Sam grunted as he sewed up the cut in his arm with a fishing hook and thread.

"Yeah well your demon bitch took her and Anna." Dean snapped from the sink where he was still spitting up blood. "Are you almost done?"

"I'm going as fast as I can." Sam groaned.

"Good, 'cause you know I got a dislocated shoulder over here." Dean gestured to his left arm, walking into the room and drinking a good amount of the whiskey that was sitting on the table.

"Yeah. I'll pop it back when I'm finished." Sam nodded. "Gimme that."

When Dean handed him the bottle, he poured the liquid over his wound and winced as it burned.

"So, you lost the magic knife, huh?" Dean asked, sitting down.

"Yeah, saving your ass. Who the hell was that demon?" the younger brother demanded, looking up at Dean.

"No one good. We got to find Anna and Elena." Dean said as Sam got up to get a good grip on Dean's shoulder.

"Ruby's got her. I'm sure she's okay. All right. Come on. On three. One..." Sam wrenched his shoulder back into place as Dean gripped the headboard of the bed.

Dean let out a shout of pain and a white hot flash of pain went through his body. He walked to the mirror as he bit his lip so hard it bled.

"You sure about Ruby? 'Cause I think it's just as likely she used us to find radio girl and then brought that demon in to kill us." He suggested once he was able to speak again.

"No, she took Anna to keep her safe." Sam said stubbornly.

"Yeah? Well, why hasn't she called to tell us where she is?" Dean countered.

"Because that demon is probably watching us right now, waiting to follow us right back to Anna again. That's why he let us go." Sam

"You call this letting us go?" Dean chuckled with absolutely no amusement.

"Yeah, I do. Look, killing us would've been no problem to that thing. That's why, for now, we just got to lay low and wait for Ruby to contact us." Sam said.

"How's she gonna do that? Why do you trust her so much?" Dean growled.

"I told you." Sam shrugged.

"You got to do better than that. Hey, and I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I mean, I really want to understand. But I need to know more. I mean, I deserve to know more." Dean said, raising his uninjured arm up in a surrender motion but it really looked as though he was asking for a high five.

"Because... she saved my life." Sam said softly, looking down at his hands.

Dean watched with interest as he launched into the story of what exactly happened while he was in hell.

* * *

Elena sat with Anna bouncing her knee while she stared at the motionless body of the girl that Ruby depossessed to find Sam and Dean at their hotel.

"It's ok, I'm sure that Sam and Dean are all right." Anna assured her.

"I just wish that I was with them. I need to be with them. They are…" Elena trailed off, knowing that this desperation was partly an extension of whatever she was and her need to keep them safe and partly just her normal, human attachment to the brothers.

"I know." Anna said, rubbing Elena's shoulder soothingly.

Elena looked over at her with a furrowed brow.

"I'm supposed to be keeping you calm, not the other way around." she sighed.

"Well maybe we could help each other out." Anna said with a soft smile.

Elena couldn't help but relax her own face into a smile as the girl continued to comfort her. Before either of them could say another word, the front door flew open and black smoke poured in. Elena jumped in front of Anna just in case it wasn't Ruby but instead another demon. It flew into the body and her eyes popped open.

"Damn that maid was not very healthy." Ruby groaned as she sat up, testing out the muscles and sighing with relief.

"Prove that it's you." Elena said, not wanting to take any chances.

"The first time I saw you, you were standing in front of the brothers like a freaking guard dog." Ruby shrugged, turning away from her to sit by the door and stare at it.

"Are they on their way?" Elena asked, relaxing and sitting back down on the couch.

"Yeah, it'll be a while though. I wouldn't let them take their car so they are either walking or have stolen a car." Ruby said.

"My bet is on walking. They don't want to attract the attention that stealing a car might bring." Elena said, bringing her knees up to her chest.

Ruby looked over at her and Elena could have sworn that she narrowed her eyes dangerously before smirking.

"Well aren't you a little fountain of information." She said sarcastically.

"Tell me, Ruby, how many people have you killed just by possessing them? Two? Three? Forty? Children too?" Elena shot back.

"I've killed as many of you as you've killed of my kind. You don't think we have loyalty towards each other?"

"I think that you have about as much loyalty as you need to have in the moment when you need something. Sam might trust you and hell he may even bring Dean around to trusting you but I will never trust you because as far as I'm concerned, you are the reason that Sam is destroying himself." Elena spat out.

"I am the reason that Sam is even alive!" Ruby shot back.

"Sam is…" Elena began to shout, leaning forward to tell the demon exactly what was happening to Sam.

She was stopped by Anna's hand on hers, squeezing lightly.

"I don't think you two should fight. Sam and Dean won't be happy if they get here and you two have leveled the cabin." She said, smiling slightly.

Elena gave Ruby one last glare before sitting back and crossing her arms angrily. Ruby did the same, turning to the door to watch it very closely, waiting for the Winchesters to show up.

A knock on the door broke the silence in the room and Ruby jumped up, walking to open the door. Elena remained sitting next to Anna, who was clutching her hand.

"Glad you could make it." Ruby said, stepping aside to let them in.

"Yeah, thanks. Anna, are you okay?" Sam asked as soon as he walked in, looking over the redhead with concerned eyes.

"Yeah. I think so. Ruby's not like other demons. She and Elena saved my life." Anna said, smiling between them.

Dean walked in behind Sam and Elena noticed that they both looked worse for wear. She jumped up and walked to Dean, inspecting the dark bruises on his face.

"The demon." He grunted.

Elena noticed that he wasn't moving his left arm and her eyes narrowed at Ruby as she turned to glare at the demon. If only Ruby hadn't demanded that Elena bring Anna, she could have been there to heal Dean and Sam. But Elena didn't want the demon to know about her abilities and the demon would ask a lot of questions if the brothers were simply healed. Instead of healing his face, which was too obvious, she laid her hand on his shoulder as if she was comforting him. Instead she was concentrating on healing him while staring intensly into his eyes.

"You okay?" he asked as he sighed with relief when she healed his shoulder.

Elena nodded and glanced over at Ruby.

"She did save Anna's life." she murmured, not even bothering to keep any contempt out of her voice.

"Yeah, I hear she does that. I guess I... You know." Dean stammered, turning to face Ruby.

While they were distracted, Elena walked over and placed her hand on top of Sam's bandaged arm.

"What?" Ruby said, smirking at Dean.

"I guess I owe you for... Sam. And I just wanted... you know..." the older brother shrugged, having a hard time actually getting the words out.

"Don't strain yourself." Ruby said, chuckling at Dean.

"Okay, then. Is the moment over? Good, 'cause that was awkward." Dean said, looking as though he'd rather be talking about anything else.

"Hey, Sam, you think it'd be safe to make a quick call, just to tell my parents I'm okay? They must be completely freaked." Anna asked as Elena finished healing his arm.

"Uh..." Sam said, his eyes flashing to Elena and Dean.

"What?" Anna said, sounding panicked at his hesitance.

"Anna, um... Your parents... look, I'm sorry." He sighed.

"No, they're not..." Anna said, shaking her head.

"Anna, I'm sorry." Elena said, starting forward to put a comforting hand on her arm.

"Why is this happening to me?" Anna whimpered, collapsing on the couch and burying her head in her hands.

"I don't know." Elena murmured, sitting next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"They're coming." Anna said suddenly, her eyes snapping open and staring at the door.

"Back room." Dean said immediately, pulling Anna up and shoving her into the bathroom before slamming the door shut.

"Where's the knife?" Ruby demanded, looking between the brothers.

"Uh... about that..." Dean trailed off.

"You're kidding." Ruby said, glaring at him.

"Hey, don't look at me." Dean said, raising his hands and pointing at Sam.

"Thanks a lot." Sam snapped.

"Great. Just peachy. Impeccable timing, guys, really." Ruby nodded, frustrated.

Suddenly the door began to rattle violently and then bursted open. They all steeled themselves and Elena clutched her gun in her hands. Castiel and Uriel walked in and they all sighed with relief except for Ruby.

"Please tell me you're here to help. We've been having demon issues all day." Dean said, gesturing wildly.

"Well, I can see that. You want to explain why you have that stain in the room?" Uriel said, referring to Ruby, who looked as though she wanted to run very far away.

"We're here for Anna." Castiel said, not bothering to give Ruby a glance as he stared at Dean.

Something about his words unnerved Elena and she knew, somehow, that the angels weren't here to protect the young woman.

"Here for her like... here for her?" Dean questioned, sensing the same thing.

"Stop talking. Give her to us." Uriel said emotionlessly, glancing between the three of them.

"Are you gonna help her?" Sam asked, clueless about the angels' true intentions unlike Elena and Dean.

"No, she has to die." Castiel said simply, his eyes a blank slate as well as his face.

The words hung in the air as they all processed them.

* * *

**Author's Note: I am sorry that this isn't longer and that I left it at a bit of a cliffhanger but I have to go to work. I hope it wasn't too bad. **

**A few things:**

**1. I will wrap up the Anna thing in the next chapter.**

**2. Dean will find out about Sam and we will see his reaction.**

**3. Elena will choose to do something surprising.**

**4. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, MaddAlice, chiwi, RHatch89, slayerdiaries, Dark Alana, diehardromantic, DreamfulSin, and LineChokor for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. I am cutting a few scenes out of the story that are in the television show (i.e. the group going to retrieve Anna's grace and finding that it was already taken) simply because they don't really add anything to this story in particular. But just because I didn't write it, don't assume that it didn't happen. Everything that happened on the show happens in this fic unless I say otherwise.**

**2. I know that I skipped the wishing well episode but I promise that I am going back to it. It is just kind of a whimsical happy episode and I feel that would have been really out of place with what Elena and Dean are experiencing here.**

**3. Enjoy!**

* * *

"You want Anna? Why?" Sam demanded.

Elena simply stared at Castiel, daring him to look at her after he admitted that he wanted to kill Anna. There was no way that he couldn't feel her gaze on him. He knew that she was glaring at him and he was avoiding her eyes.

"Out of the way." Uriel said, stepping forward menacingly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, I know she's wiretapping your angel chats or whatever, but it's no reason to gank her." Dean said, trying to deescalate the situation.

"Don't worry. I'll kill her gentle." Uriel said with a slight smirk.

"You're some heartless sons of bitches, you know that?" Dean growled, glaring at Uriel.

"As a matter of fact, we are. And?" Cas said, looking up at Dean.

Elena felt as though her heart had dropped out of her chest. It was hard to distinguish between the Castiel she thought she knew and the one that she was seeing in front of her.

"And? Anna's an innocent girl." Sam said desperately, trying to get them to see sense.

"She is far from innocent." Castiel said, shaking his head slowly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Elena demanded, finally tired of him not looking at her.

"It means she's worse than this abomination you've been screwing. Now give us the girl." Uriel said, his eyes flashing to her.

"Sorry. Get yourself another one. Try JDate." Dean said after exchanging a glance with Sam.

"Who's gonna stop us? You three? Or this demon whore?" Uriel said, reaching out and throwing Ruby against the wall.

As he lifted his hand to touch her head, Dean flew forward and yanked him off of the demon. Meanwhile, Elena watched with panic as Castiel walked towards Sam.

"Cas, stop...please." Sam said pleadingly, holding his hands out to keep him back.

Cas simply leaned forward and touched his fingers to Sam's forehead, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious. Elena saw Uriel punching Dean out of the corner of her eye as Cas turned towards her and the door that Anna was behind.

"I've been waiting for this." Uriel said happily.

When Castiel took a step forward, Elena automatically raised her gun, unsure of what else to do.

"That will not hurt me." He assured her in his gravelly voice.

"It'll slow you down, though." She replied, staring him down.

Suddenly a bright light lit up the room and Castiel and Uriel both disappeared.

"What the..." Dean grumbled as he attempted to climb to his feet from where Uriel dropped him on the ground.

He walked forward and helped Ruby up, putting his hand underneath her arms. Elena turned to the bathroom and opened the door, revealing Anna sitting on the floor with slit wrists. Elena looked down at her with shock before looking up and seeing a symbol on the mirror in Anna's blood.

"Are they… are they gone?" Anna asked weakly as Elena knelt next to her.

Dean ran in, immediately kneeling on the other side of Anna and pressing towels to her wounds.

"Did you kill them?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"No. I sent them away... far away." Anna explained, sighing heavily.

"You want to tell me how?" Dean questioned, looking up at the sigil.

"That just popped in my head. I don't know how I did it. I just did it." Anna breathed, letting Dean pull her to her feet.

A few minutes later, Ruby was helping Anna wash up as Elena, Sam, and Dean stood in the cabin. As much as she wanted to ask why the hell Dean was so fine with Ruby now, she kept her mouth shut.

"So, what do you think?" Dean asked Sam and Anna

"I think Anna's getting more interesting by the second." Sam said.

"Yeah, I agree. And what did they mean by 'she's not innocent'?" Elena threw in, looking between the brothers.

"It seems like they want her bad, and not just 'cause of the angel radio thing. I mean, that blood spell… some serious crap, man." Sam nodded.

"Something's going on with her. See what you can find out." Dean said, looking at Sam as he gave him a job.

"What are you gonna do?" Elena asked.

"Anna may have sent the angels to the outfield, but, sooner or later, they're gonna be back. We got to get ourselves safe now." Dean said.

* * *

After they found out that Bobby was on a trip, they claimed his house and property as their home base. At the moment, Dean and Elena were getting Anna set up in the panic room.

"Iron walls drenched in salt. Demons can't even touch the joint." Dean explained, pointing at all of the features as he explained them.

Ruby was waiting outside the open door with her hands full of hex bags.

"Which I find racist, by the way." she threw in, looking disgruntled over the fact that she couldn't enter.

Elena felt a need to punch her in the face and was almost glad that the need wasn't disappearing.

"Write your congressman." Dean growled, glaring at her.

It also made her happy that Dean hadn't completely forgotten who and what she was.

"Here." Ruby said, ignoring his snarky remarks as she tossed him a bag.

"Hex bags?" Dean questioned as Elena caught one as well.

"Extra-crunchy. They'll hide us from angels, demons, all comers." Ruby confirmed.

"Thanks, Ruby." Dean said automatically, surprising the demon with his instant gratitude.

"So, Anna, what's playing on angel radio? Anything useful?" Dean asked the redhead as he handed her a hex bag.

"It's quiet. Dead silence." Anna said softly, turning the hex bag over in her hands.

"Good. That's not troubling at all." Dean said, nodding as he paced the small room.

"We're in trouble, huh? You guys are scared?" Anna asked, her eyes flickering from Dean to Elena to Ruby.

"Nah." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Hey, Dean!" Sam called from upstairs, back from the trip.

"Just stay here, okay? Keep an eye on her." Dean said to Ruby as he nodded for Elena to follow him.

"How's the car?" he asked as soon as he was within eyeshot of Sam.

"I got her. She's fine. Where's Bobby?" Sam asked, looking around the empty kitchen.

"Uh, The Dominican. He said we break anything, we buy it." Dean explained.

"He's working a job?" Sam questioned, putting a bag of groceries on the table.

"God, I hope so. Otherwise, he's at hedonism in a banana hammock and a trucker cap."

"Now that's seared in my brain." Sam said, grimacing along with Elena at the visual that brought up.

"All right, what did you find on Anna?" Dean asked, pulling out a sandwich and chowing down on it immediately.

Elena held back, not feeling much hunger. It was really bothering her all of the circumstances surrounding Anna. She was a very sweet young woman being hunted by demons and angels with noise in her head and random sigils popping up too.

"Uh, not much. Her parents were, uh, Rich and Amy Milton - a church deacon and a housewife." Sam said.

"Riveting." Dean replied with his mouth full, causing Elena to roll her eyes.

"Yeah. But there is something here in the report. Turns out this latest psych episode wasn't her first." Sam said, finally saying something that was interesting.

"No?" Elena questioned.

"When she was 2 1/2, she'd get hysterical any time her dad got close. She was convinced that he wasn't her real daddy." Sam said.

"Who was? The plumber, hmm? A little snaking the pipes?" Dean suggested, grinning at them.

Elena stared down at him with a disgusted face as Sam shook his head.

"Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again. Look, Anna didn't say. She just kept repeating that this real father of hers was mad. Very mad… like wanted-to-kill-her mad." Sam informed Dean.

"Kind of heavy for a 2-year-old." Dean shrugged.

"Well, she saw a kid's shrink, got better, and grew up normal." Sam nodded.

"Until now. So, what's she hiding?" Dean questioned just as Anna and Ruby entered the room.

"Why don't you just ask me to my face?" Anna said, staring at Dean.

"Nice job watching her." Dean said, turning to glare at Ruby.

"I'm watching her." Ruby shrugged, gesturing to the girl who was obviously within her sight.

"No, you're right, Anna. Is there anything you want to tell us?" Sam questioned, sounding ashamed that he was caught second-guessing her story.

"About what?" Anna replied, narrowing her eyes.

"The angels said you were guilty of something. Why would they say that?" Sam said.

"You tell me. Tell me why my life has been leveled... Why my parents are dead. I don't know. I swear. I would give anything to know." Anna said desperately.

"Okay. Then let's find out." Elena suggested.

"How?" Anna asked, looking around at all of them.

* * *

Elena walked behind Dean as he helped the psychic walk down the stairs and into the basement.

"We're here!" Dean shouted, his voice echoing unnecessarily around the basement.

"Pamela, hey!" Sam exclaimed, walking out of the panic room.

"Sam, is that you?" Pamela said, a grin forming on her face as she reached out for Sam.

"I'm right here." Sam said, grabbing her arms and steadying her.

"Oh. Know how I can tell? That perky little ass of yours. You could bounce a nickel off that thing." Pamela said, grabbing Sam into a hug and patting his ass appreciatively.

"Of course I know it's you, grumpy. Same way I know that's a demon, and behind me is Elena and Dean, and that poor girl's Anna and that you've been eyeing my rack." Pamela said, raising an eyebrow at Sam.

"Uh... uh... uh..." Sam stammered, looking around for anyone's help.

"Don't sweat it, kiddo. I still got more senses than most." Pamela said, winking as she bumped his hip and walked past him to Anna

"Got it." Sam nodded

"Hey, Anna. How are you? I'm Pamela." Pamela said, approaching the redheaded young woman.

"Hi." Anna said softly, smiling at the psychic.

"Dean told me what's been going on. I'm excited to help." Pamela nodded back at Dean.

"Oh. That's nice of you." Anna said, her smile growing bigger.

"Oh, well, not really. Any chance I can dick over an angel, I'm taking it." Pamela said, bitterness evident in her voice.

Dean, Sam, and Elena all shifted uncomfortably at the reminder of the white hot pain burning out her eyes when she tried to contact Castiel.

"Why?" Anna asked, confused.

"They stole something from me." Pamela said, removing her sunglasses to reveal white eyes.

"Demon-y, I know. But they're just plastic. Good for business. Makes me look extra-psychic, don't you think? Now...how about you tell me what your deal is? Hmm? Don't you worry." Pamela said, reaching out to squeeze Anna's hands.

Ten minutes later, Anna was lying on the bed in the panic room with Pamela seated next to her. The door was closed and Elena, Dean, and Sam were leaning against the wall.

"Nice and relaxed. Now, I'm going to count down from five to zero. When we're at zero, you'll be in a deep state of hypnosis. As I count down, just go deeper and deeper, okay? 5... 4... 3... 2... 1. Deep sleep. Deep sleep. Every muscle calm and relaxed. Can you hear me?" Pamela said in a hypnotic voice.

"I can hear you." Anna replied in a strangely ethereal voice.

"Now, Anna, tell me... How can you hear the angels? How did you work that spell?" Pamela questioned.

"I don't know. I just did." Anna said.

"Your father... What's his name?"

"Rich Milton." Anna

"All right. But I want you to look further back... When you were very young... Just a couple of years old." Pamela suggested, holding Anna's hand as she commanded her.

"I don't want to." Anna said, shaking her head slightly.

"It'll be okay. Anna, just one look - that's all we need." Pamela assured her.

"No." Anna whimpered.

"What's your dad's name? Your real dad. Why is he angry at you?" the psychic pressed.

"No. No! No. No!" Anna screamed, suddenly thrashing violently.

"Calm down." Pamela said calmly.

"He's gonna kill me!"

"Anna, you're safe." Pamela assured her.

"No!" Anna screamed, as the glass and lights around them shattered at her voice.

"Calm down."

"He's gonna kill me!" Anna screamed again, thrashing against Pamela's hold on her mind.

"It's all right, Anna." Pamela said in that same calm voice.

Dean, having had enough of watching this unfold, took a few steps forward against Sam and Elena's urging of him to stay put.

"Anna?" he questioned.

"Dean, don't." Pamela warned him, holding up her hand.

It was too late as Anna threw Dean across the room. Elena ran to him as Pamela decided it was enough.

"Wake in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Anna... Anna? You all right?" Pamela asked as Anna sat straight up with her eyes open and entirely calm.

"Thank you, Pamela. That helps a lot. I remember now." Anna said in a deadpan voice that Elena immediately recognized.

As she helped Dean climb to his feet, she prepared to run with him and Sam to the door.

"Remember what?" Sam asked, unsure.

"Who I am." Anna replied, staring straight ahead at the wall.

"I'll bite. Who are you?" Dean said gruffly, sounding put off that she threw him across the room with her mind.

"I'm an angel." Anna said, turning to face him.

* * *

"Don't be afraid, I'm not like the others." Anna assured them as they all convened in the living room.

"I don't find that very reassuring." Ruby said, standing as far away from the angel as she could in the small room.

"Neither do I." Pamela seconded from where she was sitting on the couch.

"So...Castiel, Uriel… they're the ones that came for me?" Anna questioned Sam and Dean, her eyes steadily avoiding Elena's ever since she realized who and what she was.

It was making Elena a little bit angry.

"You know them?" Dean asked.

"We were kind of in the same foxhole." Anna shrugged, turning to pace as she shoved her hands in her jean pockets.

"So, what, were they like your bosses or something?" Dean asked.

"Try the other way around." Anna corrected him.

"Look at you." he said proudly, smirking at her.

It was that same smirk that he gave… used to give… Elena when he was teasing her. Now she couldn't even remember the last time he'd used it on her.

"But now they want to kill you?" Pamela asked.

"Orders are orders. I'm sure I have a death sentence on my head." Anna nodded as though everything was falling into place in her head.

"Why?" the psychic asked.

Elena found herself wanting to know the answers to all of these questions as well but as long as Anna was refusing to look at her and as long as Dean was flirting with the angel, Elena had no desire to speak.

"I disobeyed... which, for us, is about the worst thing you can do. I fell." The female angel explained.

"Meaning?" Dean pressed

"She fell to earth, became human." Pamela said.

"Wait a minute. I don't understand. So, angels can just become human?" Sam asked, looking between Pamela and Anna

"It kind of hurts. Try cutting your kidney out with a butter knife. That kind of hurt. I ripped out my grace." Anna informed him.

"Come again?" Dean said, sounding confused.

"My grace. It's... energy. Hacked it out and fell. My mother, Amy, couldn't get pregnant. Always called me her little miracle. She had no idea how right she was." she told them.

"So, you just forgot that you were God's little Power Ranger?" Dean asked.

"The older I got, the longer I was human, yeah." Anna nodded.

"I don't think you all appreciate how completely screwed we are." Ruby threw in, leaning against the doorpost.

"Ruby's right. Heaven wants me dead." Anna said, throwing a sympathetic look to the demon.

Elena felt as though she was alone in her distrust of Ruby now. Even Dean wasn't glaring at the demon or throwing insulting remarks at her anymore. But the demon was useful and Elena knew that they needed useful.

"And Hell just wants her. A flesh-and-blood angel that you can question, torture, that bleeds. Sister, you're the Stanley Cup. And sooner or later, Heaven or Hell, they're gonna find you." Ruby said to Anna.

"I know. And that's why I'm gonna get it back." Anna said decidedly.

"What?" Sam asked.

"My grace."

"You can do that?" Dean questioned.

"If I can find it." Anna shrugged.

"So, what, you're just gonna take some divine bong hit, and, shazam, you're Roma Downey?" the older brother questioned

"Something like that." Anna said.

"All right. I like this plan. So, where's this grace of yours?" Dean questioned

"Lost track. I was falling about ten thousand miles per hour at the time." Anna explained.

"Wait. You mean falling, like, literally?" Sam asked, looking as though Christmas came early.

"Yes." Anna said slowly, eyeing him with a confused look.

"Like the way a human eye can see? Like a comet, maybe, or a meteor?"

"Why do you ask?" Anna questioned.

As Sam explained something about comets to Anna, Elena met Ruby's eyes.

"We need to talk." She mouthed.

Ruby looked confused but nodded hesitantly.

* * *

About fifteen minutes later, Sam sat surrounded by books and the browser was open on his laptop. Ruby was behind him looking over his shoulder. Neither of them knew it, but someone was standing just outside the room listening on their conversation, waiting for the demon to say something to betray herself and give them an excuse to toss her ass out the door.

"Here. In march '85, a meteorite vanished in the night sky over northwestern Ohio. It was sighted nine months before Anna was born, and she was born in that part of Ohio." Sam said, pointing at the computer.

"You're pretty buff for a nerd." Ruby smirked.

Sam rolled his eyes and continued.

"Look, I think it was Anna and here, same time… another meteor over Kentucky." He explained.

"And that's her grace?" the demon asked.

"Might be." Sam nodded, sounding proud of himself.

"All right. That just narrows it down to an entire state." Ruby sighed

"Look, it's a start." He said, sounding a little deflated.

"Sam... I'm sorry." Ruby said after a moment of silence.

"For what?" Sam questioned

"For bringing you this mess. If I had known, I would have kept my trap shut." Ruby said sadly and for a moment, the eavesdropper almost believed her solemn crap.

"Yeah, well, we'll muddle through." Sam shrugged.

"Not this time. You do not want to get between these two armies. It's Godzilla and Mothra. If one side doesn't get us, the other one will." Ruby explained.

"So, what do you want to do? Dump Anna and run? Forget it. Look, I know the angels freak you out." Sam began.

"Forget the angels. It's Alastair I'm scared of." Ruby scoffed, causing the person outside to perk up at the mention of the big time demon's name.

"Alastair?" Sam asked.

"You met him in the church. Practically the grand inquisitor downstairs. Picasso with a razor." Ruby said, grimacing as she spoke of the demon.

"And?" Sam questioned.

"And you should pull him out and throw him back in the pit... if you weren't so out of shape." The demon

"Ruby..." Sam

"No, your abilities… you're getting flabby. Elena told me about Samhain. Your nose was bleeding, Sam. I warned you about that, you know that you have to tone up." Ruby said.

"Elena told you that I exorcised Samhain?" Sam said, looking up at Ruby with wide eyes.

The person outside stood, shocked. He'd been listening in on their conversation to get dirt on Ruby yet ended up finding out something about someone totally different. Someone he'd trusted. Dean stepped around the corner, glaring at Sam and Ruby as his anger level shot up immensly. But it wasn't them that he was angry at.

"You want to tell me exactly what the hell happened with the Samhain?" He growled, taking in Sam's panicked expression and Ruby's surprised one.

"Dean didn't know?" Ruby asked, gesturing to him while looking down at Sam.

"No, interestingly enough Dean didn't know. What other secrets are you conspiring to keep from me, Sammy? And why the hell did you have to bring Elena into it?" Dean demanded, the level of his voice rising as he spoke.

"Dean… I'm…" Sam began.

"I don't want to hear that you're sorry, Sam! I want you to explain!" Dean roared, beyond furious at this point.

Elena and Anna ran in, both of them panicked at the sudden outburst from Dean.

"What is going on?" Elena asked, obviously not having heard the exact words that were being exchanged.

"What's going on is that I just found out something interesting to do with that Samhain demon! You know the one that you assured me Sam killed with Ruby's knife!" Dean growled.

Elena felt as though she was sinking into a dark pit when Dean's glare turned on hers. He hadn't stared at her like that since the very first day they met and he thought she was a demon. No, he hadn't even been that angry then. At that moment, she quite possibly thought that Dean was going to attack her.

"Dean… I…" she began.

"I do not want to hear apologies." He growled again, staring between Elena and Sam, who exchanged panicked looks.

"You both lied to me! Sammy I expected it from you. After all you lied to me about it before! But you…" Dean focused on Elena.

"I never ever expected for you to lie to me." he said in a low voice, his glare burning into her eyes.

Elena felt her lip trembling as she stepped forward.

"Dean, I'm sorry. Sam was just so scared after and… and I didn't want you two to be separated by this again. You were doing so… so well and I didn't want you to lose that. He promised that he would stop doing it if I didn't tell you. I'm so sorry." She said pleadingly.

"He promised he would stop doing it before! It wasn't your decision to make! How am I supposed to know that something is wrong with my brother if no one will tell me?" Dean shouted.

Elena flinched and stepped backwards, unable to handle his temper being taken out on her. Usually, he would be yelling at someone else and she would be the only one who could calm him down. Now she was receiving the brunt of his anger, just like she deserved.

"I know, I know I should have told you. Why do you think that I've been acting so strange? I've felt so guilty because I knew that I should have told you. All of those times that… that I pulled away and left, I was feeling so overwhelmingly bad about keeping this quiet because I knew that you should know." Elena said, feeling tears spill down her cheeks as she explained.

Dean shook his head and backed away from her.

"You're right. You should have told me." he growled before turning to stomp out.

Elena bit her lip to keep from crying anymore as she watched him slam his way out of the house. When she looked back at Sam with wide, shining eyes, he looked very guilty and he was barely able to mouth that he was sorry to her. As much as she wanted to blame Sam, it wasn't his fault. He was only scared to disappoint his brother by telling him. The responsibility fell to Elena to do the right thing and she had sorely misjudged what the right thing was. Instead of opening her mouth to tell Sam that he was doing the right thing, Elena turned and fled to the stairs, all the way up to the guest room that was still her room.

* * *

In the wake of Dean and Elena's absences, Sam continued to research as Ruby and Anna looked on silently. Pamela was long gone, having found a ride from a friend a few towns over.

"Union, Kentucky. Found some accounts of a local miracle." Sam sighed, slamming the books closed after an hour of researching, rubbing his temples as his head ached.

They heard footsteps and Dean entered the study.

"What happened?" Dean asked, looking drained both emotionally and physically.

His eyes flashed to the stairs and they wondered if he would go up for a moment.

"Yeah. In '85, there was an empty field outside of town. Six months later, there was a full-grown oak. They say it looks a century old at least." Sam explained, staring at Dean hesitantly.

"Anna, what do you think?" Dean asked, turning to the angel without looking at his brother.

"The grace. Where it hit, it could have done something like that, easy." Anna shrugged.

"So grace ground zero - it's not destruction. It's..." Dean trailed off, his voice a little rough from all the yelling he'd done both in the house when he confronted Elena and Sam and outside when he'd yelled all of his fury out at the open sky.

"Pure creation." Anna confirmed.

"Well we need to head there. I say all four of us go." Dean said.

"Four of us?" Sam asked, looking at his brother.

"You, me, Anna, Ruby." Dean said, pulling out his gun without looking up at Sam.

"Dean…" he sighed, standing up.

"I don't want to hear it." Dean snapped before turning to get his car ready for the trip to Arkansas.

"Who wants to tell the other half of the lover's spat that we're leaving without her?" Ruby said, sounding as though she'd rather go back to hell.

Sam walked upstairs begrudgingly to inform Elena of what was going on. He knocked on the door slowly and it creaked open, revealing Elena with bloodshot and puffy eyes, her hair thrown back out of her face, and a large sweatshirt hanging off of her small frame.

"What?" she said hoarsely, looking up at him with eyes that looked similar to Dean's, just as emotionally exhausted.

"We… uh… we figured out where Anna's grace fell." Sam said.

"Great, are we going to get it?" Elena asked, rubbing her eyes as if she was trying to remove the evidence of her crying.

Sam winced as he began to explain it to her.

"Well, uh… we are… but…" he trailed off.

Elena looked up at him knowingly.

"I'm not invited." She said, her voice all of the sudden thick once again.

Sam wanted to run and at the same time, he wanted to embrace her. He really just did not like crying women.

"I'm sorry." He murmured, his eyes sliding down to look at his feet as he was ashamed.

Elena sighed and he looked up to see a slight glint in her eyes, something that awakened her from the dead look.

"That son of a bitch." She cursed, using Dean's favorite phrase before she pushed past Sam and stomped down the stairs.

When Elena reached the bottom, she saw Anna and Ruby talking as they stood in the study. With one look at her, they knew exactly what she wanted to know.

"He's outside." They said at the same time.

Elena turned and flew out of the house, slamming the door open as she stomped outside. Dean was bent over the trunk going through the weapons.

"Where the hell do you get off punishing me by forcing me to stay at home, you fucking asshole?" she screamed, causing him to jump and turn to look at her with wide eyes.

Then his eyes narrowed at her and he stood up straight at his fullest height.

"Do you blame me for not wanting you to come? I can't exactly trust you right now, can I?" he shot back, glaring down at her as she stomped right up to him.

Elena's hand shot out and slapped him before either of them knew it. Sam, Ruby, and Anna didn't want to admit that they were eavesdropping, but it was hard to call it anything else when they were practically leaning out of the door to get a glimpse at what was going on.

"But you trust Ruby? A fucking demon!" she screamed, not even hesitating after she slapped him across his face.

Dean put his hand against his hot cheek for a moment and stared down at her.

"At least Ruby has never tried to pretend that she's something she's not. Ruby hasn't ever lied, she's just a demon!" Dean shot back.

Elena glared at him for a moment.

"How can you possibly get mad at me for keeping this quiet for Sam, huh? When I have been keeping your secret quiet ever since you were raised out of the freaking ground! Have I told anyone what hell was like for you even though I know every detail? No! I have kept my mouth shut because I know that you don't want anyone to know. Why can't I afford Sam the same comfort, huh? Why can't he be able to come to you in his own time and tell you? Because even though he didn't know it and maybe I didn't even know it until now, he would have come to you eventually, Dean! Just like you'll go to him and tell him everything about hell eventually!" Elena yelled.

Dean stared down at her, effectively silenced by her speech. Elena glared up at him, breathing heavily after her long tirade.

"He was never going to permanently keep you in the dark because you are his brother! He just knew how disappointed you would be because he was just as disappointed in himself! So maybe you can get off of your damn high horse and consider other people's side of things!" Elena snapped, turning to walk away from him as she was done saying her piece.

He could go on his stupid roadtrip now that she'd said everything she wanted to say. When Dean's hand caught her arm, she whirled around and wrenched it out of his grip.

"What?" she hissed, no longer feeling the need to shout at him.

When she saw the regret in his eyes, her heart began to soften towards him but she didn't allow that to happen. It would take more than a sad look for her to forget that he'd practically banished her from coming on the trip with them just because he was mad that he was out of the loop on something.

"I… you can come." He said, his apology cut off by his pride.

Elena scoffed and shook her head.

"No thanks." She said, turning and running up to the house.

* * *

Once they left, Sam promising to keep her updated on what was happening, Elena was left alone at Bobby's house. It was the first time she'd actually been alone in months other than short periods of time. She was looking at over a day of being alone and she had no idea what to do. So she began to organize and clean. It was easy enough to begin with the study. With Sam's computer that he left behind, she opened up a browser and began typing the strange foreign titles of books into the computer to get the English translation.

Then she proceeded to organize all of the books by alphabetical order. The books that she couldn't get a translation on were on the bottom shelf organized by how scary and realistic the drawings in them were. When she finally went to bed very late that night, she was barely asleep for five minutes before she had a nightmare. Then another and another. Finally, she gave up on sleeping and went back to organizing and cleaning, this time doing the kitchen. She was carrying a hex bag around with her everywhere so that no one showed up uninvited.

When the kitchen was sparkling clean, she moved to the upstairs and cleaned everywhere up there. She didn't even bother going to the basement as she knew that it would take years to organize the stuff down there. Early the next morning, after practically being driven crazy by the silence in the house and her own scary thoughts in her head, Elena received communication from Sam. The grace wasn't where it was supposed to be and they were about six hours away from Sioux Falls. Elena sighed and went upstairs to try to get some sleep, already knowing that it would be unsuccessful.

* * *

When Dean, Sam, Ruby, and Anna arrived back at the house, they walked inside to regroup. The other three could tell that Dean was eager to get to Elena as he'd sped more than normal on the trip back to the house. They looked around as they entered, shocked by the cleanness of the house as they'd left it normal and dirty. But there was no Elena to be found. Just as Sam opened his mouth to say her name, her scream echoed around the house. Dean was running up the stairs before any of the others had time to react. They followed him as he sprinted towards Elena's room.

When he slammed the door open, he saw Elena sitting in the middle of the bed with the sheets clutched in her hands and tears pouring down her face. He immediately walked to her, all thoughts of anger gone when he saw her trembling lip and fear-filled eyes. The other three watched from the doorway as Dean gathered Elena into his arms to comfort her. They were all shocked when she shoved him away and clambered out of bed.

"I'm fine." She whimpered before she ran past him and into the hallway before disappearing into the bathroom.

The sound of her heaving sobs that escaped through the door betrayed her, proving that she was not, in fact, fine. Dean was shocked, still sitting on her bed where she shoved him away. It was the first time, whether she was pissed or not, that she'd rejected his comforting embrace after a nightmare. He looked up at Sam with wide eyes and the younger brother had no idea what to say to either his brother or the young woman he'd grown so used to being in their lives. What he was really thinking was that they should have known better than to think that their happy times with Elena would last forever. Because when were they ever that lucky?

* * *

"We still got the hex bags. I say we head back to the panic room." Dean suggested as they all walked into the barn outside where they decided to stay just in case the fight came to them.

"What, forever?" Ruby scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"I'm just thinking out loud!" Dean snapped, glaring at her.

"Oh, you call that thinking?" Ruby replied, her voice degrading.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Stop it." Sam said, getting between them as he walked into the barn.

"Anna's grace is gone. You understand? She can't angel up. She can't protect us. We can't fight Heaven and Hell. One side maybe, but not both. Not at once." Ruby said, obviously distressed by this information.

"Um... guys? The angels are talking again." Anna interrupted their talking, staring off into space.

"What are they saying?" Sam demanded, too high strung to be nice to Anna.

"It's weird... Like a recording... a loop. It says, 'Dean Winchester gives us Anna by midnight, or...'" Anna cut off, looking panicked by the last part.

"Or what?" Dean asked, urging her to continue.

"...or we hurl him back to damnation." Anna said with wide eyes, staring at him.

Dean looked panicked, staring up at Sam with wide eyes. None of them knew that Elena had followed them down to the barn and was currently standing outside listening to what they were saying. A stab of anger flew through her entire body as the threat to Dean was revealed. What the hell were the angels thinking and did they really think that she would let them lay a hand on Dean?

"Anna.. Do you know of any weapon that works on an angel?" she heard Sam ask.

"To what? To kill them?" Anna murmured.

Elena peeked in to see Sam nod at her question.

"Nothing we could get to... Not right now." The angel said, shaking her head.

"Okay, wait, wait. I say we call Bobby. We get him back from hedonism." Dean suggested.

"Dean, what's he gonna tell us that we don't already know?" Sam sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"I don't know, but we got to think of something!" Dean exclaimed, panicked over the idea that the angels might send him back to hell.

Elena decided right then and there that it was not going to happen. Screw the angels. They were not going to win this fight. They were not going to get Anna and they were certainly not going to get Dean. When they began walking towards the door, Elena backed away from it and into the shadows. They all walked back towards the house to get supplies and research materials to figure out how they could possibly beat the angels and the demons. She couldn't really go back inside without them wondering why she was outside so she was stuck outside. Elena wandered over to the Impala and leaned against the hood, imagining a time that felt like so long ago that her and Dean were sitting on it and laughing and talking and kissing.

After a few minutes, she heard footsteps. When she looked up to see Dean walking out of the house, she scrambled away from the Impala and hid behind another car in the darkness. He walked to the Impala and, instead of getting in or getting something out of it, he sat on the hood and leaned back, opening a book to read with a flashlight in his other hand. Elena cursed her luck. She was stuck there until he moved because if she moved, he would know that she was out there and he would want to talk, something she wasn't quite ready to do because she would have no idea what to say.

So she just stood there, peeking over the car and watching him like a creepy stalker. His sleeves were rolled up and he actually looked relaxed as his eyes scanned the book in the moonlight. Elena stared at him for a few minutes and, before she knew it, she was moving from behind the car to talk to him. She had to apologize to him. She had to make things right. Unfortunately, another set of footsteps halted her own forward progress and she looked to see Anna walking out to Dean.

"Hey. Holding up okay?" he asked when he caught sight of her, snapping his book closed and leaning forward to talk to her.

Elena titled her head to the side, wanting to hear what they had to say to each other even though it was basically spying.

"Trying." Anna sighed, leaning on the Impala next to where he was sitting.

He nodded and slid off, stanidng next to her.

"A little scared, I guess. So, um... Dean... I just wanted to thank you." Anna said, looking over at him with her wide doe eyes.

"For what?" Dean asked.

"Everything. You guys… you didn't have to help me…" Anna began.

"Hey, let's can the 'thanks for trying' speech, you know? Participation trophies suck ass." Dean said with a slight smile.

Elena was frozen as she watched the scene before her unfold. She didn't know if it was just her imagination, but Dean and Anna were very close. Anna was a bit too doe eyed. Dean's smile was a bit too real.

"I don't know. Maybe I don't deserve to be saved." Anna said softly, her eyes drifting down to her shoes.

"Don't talk like that." Dean said roughly, his brow furrowing.

"I disobeyed. Lucifer disobeyed. It's our murder one, and I knew it. Maybe I got to pay." Anna shrugged, looking up at him.

"Yeah, well, we've all done things we got to pay for." Dean said, averting his eyes as he looked down at his own boots.

Elena could tell that he was thinking of what he did in hell.

"I got to tell you something. You're not gonna like it." Anna said hesitantly.

"Okay. what?" Dean said, looking back up at her.

"About a week ago, I heard the angels talking... About you... What you did in Hell. Dean, I know." Anna said, her voice clearly carrying over to Elena and causing her heart to sink.

It got even worse when she reached out a hand and softly stroked Dean's cheek.

"It wasn't your fault. You should forgive yourself." Anna said, looking up at him with a slight smile and bright eyes.

Elena looked at Dean for his reaction.

"Anna, I don't w-want to, uh... I don't want to... I can't talk about that." he stammered, shaking his head.

Elena would have sighed with relief if she wouldn't have revealed herself by doing so. It probably wasn't the best thing in the world that she only wanted Dean talking to her, Sam, or Bobby but that was exactly what she wanted.

"I know. But when you can, you have people that want to help. You are not alone. That's all I'm trying to say." Anna said.

Elena saw it coming before it happened. Anna leaned in. Dean didn't lean away. Their lips met and she felt as though she was cut off from the very oxygen that was meant to keep her alive. Her head swam and, before she knew it, her feet were carrying her across the gravel and towards the house as quickly as she could go. The kiss didn't last long before Dean broke away.

"Anna… I… I can't." he said, shaking his head as he pulled away from her.

Anna stared at him for a moment before nodding.

"Elena." she said.

"You knew?" he questioned.

"I don't think anyone doesn't know, Dean. But you had to know. Now you know. Our last night on earth, you should be with her." Anna said, smiling at him.

"So when you said, you're not alone…" Dean trailed off.

"You have Elena… always." Anna confirmed.

Dean let out a breath and smiled down at her before looking up. That was when he saw the outline of a body slamming the door to the house open and running in. The long dark hair, even in a ponytail, was too familiar to be mistaken for anyone else. The light that caught on her face just as she entered the house reflected off of the tears that were running down her cheeks. There was no other explanation for it. She saw the kiss.

"Oh shit." He cursed, pushing himself off of the car and racing towards the door.

When he ran inside, Anna hot on his heels, Sam was looking at the stairs with a confused expression, wondering why Elena had just thundered up them while letting out a tragic wail of sadness. He was just considering following her when Dean slammed through the door.

"Dude, what happened?" he asked.

Dean stopped short and looked at Anna, trying to figure out how to explain the situation. But, both fortunately and unfortunately, Sam was able to read the situation just fine. Dean and Anna had been close for the entire road trip. They'd stood too close and whispered too low. Anna had just walked outside with the excuse that she wanted to make sure that Dean was all right after hearing the angels' threat. His eyes narrowed at Dean and he glared down at his brother.

"You didn't…" he trailed off.

"It was not what it looked like." Dean said quickly, holding his hands up in surrender.

"It really wasn't, Sam. I promise." Anna said, nodding along with Dean.

Sam stared between the two of them before pointing at the stairs.

"Fix it before we lose her." he said in a low voice.

Dean rushed past him and ran up the stairs. When he got to the door, he heard a shuffling from inside. He knocked on the door and heard her become completely still.

"Elena, please let me in. You need to let me explain." Dean said, knowing that it was going to be hard to convince her to hear him out.

So when the door flew open, he was surprised to see that it had been that easy. He should have known better. Elena stood there with her eyes filled with anger and sadness. When he looked past her, his heart dropped when he saw her bags on her bed and the clothes and other things haphazardly thrown in them.

"You can't leave." He said, not even trying to sound rough and Dean Winchester-like.

His voice was pleading and he didn't even care.

Elena stared at him for a moment.

"I don't even know what to…" Elena cut off as her voice broke and a fresh wave of tears filled her eyes.

"I don't care how pissed off at me you were. I don't care if you felt betrayed, there is no excuse for what just happened." She said in a level voice after taking a deep breath.

"Please." He whispered as she turned to walk back into her room.

Elena stopped short and bit her lip hard, drawing blood. She turned to look at Dean and saw that he looked devastated.

"I won't leave… for now… but…" she trailed off, shaking her head.

"I want to be alone." She sighed, pushing the door shut and staring at it for a moment before she finally let the tears begin to fall.

* * *

In the mess with Elena and Dean, no one noticed Ruby slip out. She had to give the two props. Their involvement with each other was easy to exploit for her gains.

"Hello, Ruby." Alastair said as she watched the hex bag burn on the ground of the alleyway.

"Alastair." Ruby said, looking up at him.

"I have to say, I'm surprised to find you out in the open like this." Alastair said, looking around the dark street.

"Yeah? Desperate times." She shrugged.

"That they are. You looking for this? Your gawky human friend gave it to me." Alastair said, pulling out the demon-killing knife.

"Keep it. I just came to talk." She said.

"About what? About how a demon is protecting an angel? We really must revoke your membership." The older and more powerful demon said, shaking his head.

"Look, I know I'm not employee of the month, but this… I never wanted to get in the middle of this." Ruby said desperately.

"Why are you here, Ruby?" he asked.

"I'll give you the angel."

"Will you? And in return?" Alastair said, amused at her offer.

"I walk away. Me and the Winchester boys, both of them. This angel business is none of our business." She said.

"Hmm. You know...I'd always heard that you were a devious, cowardly little slut. You don't disappoint." Alastair said.

"So, what do you say?" Ruby asked, not bothered by his insult.

She'd heard worse before.

"It's interesting... prudent." Alastair said, his eyes glancing behind her.

Suddenly two demons appeared and grabbed her, covering her mouth before she could scream.

"But, uh... Let me make you a... counteroffer." Alastair said with a smirk.

* * *

"Look at that. It's so cute when monkeys wear clothes." Uriel said from behind Dean as he shut the door to the barn.

He whirled around and stared at him with wide eyes.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" Dean asked.

"It's the only way we could chat... since you're hiding like cowards." Uriel said, scowling at him.

"Don't normally see you off leash. Where's your boss?" Dean said, referring to Cas.

"Castiel? Oh, he, uh... He's not here. See, he has this weakness. He likes you." Dean stared at the angel, unimpressed by his talk.

"Time's up, boy. We want the girl." Uriel said.

"Wouldn't try that if I were you. See, she got her grace back. Full-blown angel now." He shrugged.

"That would be a neat trick, considering... I have her grace right here. We can't let Hell get their hooks into her." Uriel said, pulling out a necklace with a shining vial on the end.

"Well, then why don't you just give her back her angel juice?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"She committed a serious crime." Uriel replied.

"What? Thinking for herself?" he growled

"This is our business, not yours. She's not even human... Not technically." Uriel said.

"Yeah, well, I guess I just like being a pain in the pooper." Dean shot back, smirking at him.

"Well, it's your last chance. Give us the girl, or…" Uriel trailed off.

"Or what? What, you're gonna toss me back in the hole? You're bluffing." he challenged the angel.

"Try me. This is a whole lot bigger than the plans we got for you, Dean. You can be replaced." Uriel warned him.

"What the hell? Go ahead and do it." Dean said, spreading his arms out welcomingly.

"You're just crazy enough to go, aren't you?" Uriel chuckled, shaking his head at Dean.

"What can I say? I don't break easy." He said.

"Oh, yes... you do. You just got to know where to apply the right pressure." Uriel murmured, his eyes lighting up with amusement.

* * *

"I don't know, man. Where's Ruby?" Sam said, glancing worredly around the barn.

"Hey, she's your hell buddy." Dean growled, drinking out of a flask as his eyes darted around the room.

Once he woke up, he couldn't go back to sleep after his dream with Uriel. Not after… well he didn't want to think about it. He went and sat outside Elena's door. He knew that she was sleeping but he couldn't think of anywhere to be so he sat there. Eventually, he'd gravitated towards the alcohol cabinet and had been taking advantage of it ever since.

"Little early for that, isn't it?" Anna asked, pacing the barn.

"It's 2 a.m. somewhere." Dean shrugged.

Before either Anna or Sam could say anything else, the doors slammed open and Castiel and Uriel entered. They slammed closed behind them and Anna, Sam and Dean all stood.

"Hello, Anna. It's good to see you." Castiel said, nodding at her.

"How? How did you find us?" Sam demanded.

Castiel's eyes flickered to Dean and Sam looked over at him with a gaping mouth.

"Dean?" He questioned, looking shocked.

"I'm sorry." Dean whispered, looking over at Anna.

"Why?" Sam demanded, sounding angry.

The door to the barn creaked open and in walked the last person any of them expected to see join the party.

"Because they gave him a choice." Elena said, walking in and standing beside the angels, who were eyeing her.

There was no trace of the sadness or betrayal on her face that had been there the night before. None of them could even tell that she'd cried. Her hair was pulled back into a perfect ballet bun and she was wearing a black trenchcoat, black skinny jeans, and black flat ankle boots. Anna nodded in agreement along with Elena

"They either kill me... or kill you. I know how their minds work." She said to Sam.

Then she turned to Dean and kissed him on the cheek.

"You did the best you could. I forgive you." she murmured, nodding at him.

"Okay. No more tricks. No more running. I'm ready." Anna said, nodding.

"I'm sorry." Castiel said in that emotionless voice of his.

"No. You're not. Not really. You don't know the feeling." Anna said, shaking her head.

"Still, we have a history. It's just…"

"Orders are orders. I know. Just make it quick." She interrupted him.

"I would wait for a moment." Elena said, holding her hand up.

They all turned to look at her. Suddenly, across from the barn, Alastair appeared with another two demons, who holding a bleeding and tortured Ruby.

"Don't you touch a hair on that poor girl's head." Alastair said, pointing his finger at Castiel and Uriel.

"How dare you come in this room... you pussing sore." Uriel said, glaring at Alastair as he walked forward.

Elena did the same, pulling Sam, Dean, and Anna out of the way and standing in front of them. The demons dropped Ruby and she crawled away as angels faced off against demons.

"Name-calling. That hurt my feelings... you sanctimonious, fanatical prick." Alastair shot back.

"Turn around and walk away now." Castiel said, narrowing his eyes at the demon.

"Sure. Just give us the girl. We'll make sure she gets punished good and proper." Alastair offered, smirking at them.

"You know who we are and what we will do. I won't say it again. Leave now... or we lay you to waste." Castiel threatened.

"Think I'll take my chances." Alastair said, smirking at him.

All of the sudden, the angels and demons began to fight. Uriel took on the two other demons while Castiel attacked Alastair. After throwing a few punches, Castiel tried to exorcise Alastair with his hand. It didn't work. Elena bent down and picked up a tire iron that was lying on the ground.

"Sorry, kiddo. Why don't you go run to daddy?" Alastair said with a grin before pushing Castiel away and slamming his hand into his face, sending the angel flying to the ground.

The demon pulled Castiel up to a sitting position as he bent over him and pressed his own hand to Castiel's forehead.

"Potestas inferna, me confirma. Potestas inferna, me confirma. Potestas inferma, me confirma!" Alastair chanted in Latin, obviously trying to do his own exorcism of Castiel.

Elena strode forward and slammed the tire iron over Alastair's head, sending him flying back to slam into the ground at Dean's feet. Dean bent down and began to slam his fists into Alastair's face. Elena moved around to stare down at Castiel. His eyes were wide and he attempted to catch his breath as he stared up at her. His eyes betrayed the fact that he had no idea whether she would hit him with the tire iron as well or help him up. Elena didn't know what she would do either until she held out her hand and helped him stand.

"You and I need to talk." She warned him before slamming the tire iron into his hands and turning to see Dean being held against the wall by Alastair.

"Dean, Dean, Dean... I am so disappointed. You had such promise." Alastair said, throwing Sam off easily as he tried to pry him off of Dean.

Elena heard Uriel shout and saw Anna take her grace from around his neck. Elena ran to Dean and grabbed Alastair by the shoulders, wrenching him backwards with all of her added strength and throwing him straight towards Anna, who broke the pendent open. White light began to flow into her mouth.

"Shut your eyes. Shut your eyes! Shut your eyes!" she screamed, staring at Elena, Dean, and Sam.

They all collapsed to the ground and squeezed their eyes shut as bright light flooded from Anna's body and filled the room. When it disappeared, they looked up to see that both Anna and Alastair were gone. The demon-killing knife was lying on the ground and Castiel and Uriel were staring at the spot where Anna disappeared. Elena stood up slowly, looking back to make sure that Dean and Sam were all right. Then her eyes met Castiel's, who looked surprised at how the events turned out.

"Well, what are you guys waiting for? Go get Anna. Unless, of course, you're scared." Dean offered, smirking at them.

"This isn't over." Uriel threatened, starting forward but Castiel stopped him.

"Oh, it looks over to me, junkless." Dean shrugged.

Castiel and Uriel suddenly disappeared and Ruby stumbled out from behind a pile of hay.

"You okay?" Sam asked, walking forward to help her.

"Not so much." Ruby grunted.

"You were late." Elena said, staring at the demon.

"Sorry I'm late with the demon delivery. I was only being tortured." Ruby

"How did you know that Alastair would show up with Ruby?" Dean asked Elena.

"Because it was all her idea, ass." Ruby sighed, sitting down on a crate and wincing.

"I got to hand it to you. Bringing them all together all at once… angels and demons. It was a damn good plan." The demon nodded at Elena.

"Wait… what?" Sam and Dean asked.

"I told Ruby the plan right after we first found out that Anna was an angel. I knew that either Uriel or Castiel would have her grace on them. While Sam was researching where the comet might have fallen and before Ruby couldn't keep her mouth shut about Samhain, I told Ruby the plan. We would have to bring the angels and demons together if we wanted to get out of this alive. We had to get them to fight each other so that we could win. She told the plan to Anna on your little roadtrip while you two weren't looking. We were originally going to bring you in on the plan but Anna assured us that one of the angels would show up in Dean's dreams and threaten Sam." Elena said, not looking up at anyone but instead staring at the spot where Anna disappeared.

"And, of course, Dean would give up Anna's location to save Sam. I would go to Alastair and offer to give him Anna in exchange for my life, and you two. He would betray me and take me to be tortured until I told him that I would show him where you were. Then they would all be here and they would take care of the problem for us."

"When you got Godzilla and Mothra on your ass, best to get out of their way and let them fight." Sam nodded, smiling slightly.

Dean and Sam looked at both of the females with impressed looks. Instead of looking back at him, Elena turned on her heel to walk out of the barn.

"Bobby called. He's on his way back." she said coldly before walking off.

Sam and Ruby both looked at Dean, who sighed.

"I didn't fix it… yet. But she said she wouldn't leave for now, okay? I have time to fix this." he defended himself.

Neither of them said a word, just staring at each other.

* * *

Elena watched from the kitchen window as Sam and Dean sat on the hood of Dean's car. Ruby was long gone by now, going off the map for a while just in case Alastair found a way back. The kitchen window was open and Elena could hear their voices floating through even though they didn't know it.

"I can't believe we made it out of there." Dean said, drinking his beer.

"Again." Sam agreed, shaking his head out of disbelief.

Dean held out his bottle and Sam clinked it against.

"I know you heard him." Dean said and Elena lifted her eyes from what she was doing to see that he was staring straight ahead without looking at Sam.

"Who?" Sam asked, acting clueless.

"Alastair. What he said... about how I had promise." Dean said.

Elena put down the mixing bowl that she was holding and watched.

"I heard him." Sam confirmed, nodding as he stared off into space as well.

"You're not curious?" Dean asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"Dean, I'm damn curious. But you're not talking about Hell, and I'm not pushing." Sam said.

"It wasn't four months, you know." Dean replied after a moment of processing Sam's words.

Elena sighed and clenched her hands into fists. She was supposed to be out there. She was supposed to be comforting him while he told Sam this but she just couldn't bring her body to move.

"What?" Sam asked, looking at him with wide eyes.

"It was four months up here, but down there... I don't know. Time's different. It was more like 40 years."

"My God." Sam breathed.

"They, uh... They sliced and carved and tore at me in ways that you... Until there was nothing left. And then, suddenly... I would be whole again... like magic... just so they could start in all over. And Alastair... at the end of every day... every one... he would come over. And he would make me an offer. To take me off the rack... if I put souls on... if I started the torturing. And every day, I told him to stick it where the sun shines. For 30 years, I told him. But then I couldn't do it anymore, Sammy. I couldn't. And I got off that rack. God help me, I got right off it, and I started ripping them apart. I lost count of how many souls. The… the things that I did to them." Tears were sliding down Dean's cheeks by the end of his explanation and Elena found that she had wetness sliding down her face as well.

"Dean... Dean, look, you held out for 30 years. That's longer than anyone would have." Sam assured him and Elena bit her lip hard.

"How I feel... this... inside me... I wish I couldn't feel anything, Sammy. I wish I couldn't feel a damn thing." Dean whimpered.

His head turned and he saw Elena watching him. He saw the tears on her face and the sympathy in her eyes. She was crying for him. And in that moment, both of them knew that she wasn't going to leave. She was staying there because she couldn't possibly think of doing anything else. But Elena couldn't just pretend like everything hadn't just happened. She couldn't pretend like she hadn't betrayed Dean by keeping an important secret from him. She couldn't pretend like she hadn't caught him kissing Anna when they were… whatever they were. Elena wished that she hadn't been so scared about labelling their relationship because now she had no idea what to call anything. Did he cheat on her by kissing Anna? What were they now? Friends? Acquiantances? It was so much easier when everything was clear.

Elena sighed and moved away from the window, wiping her tears away before turning attention back to the mixing bowl. She finished mixing the dark brownie batter up before pouring into the pan and sticking it into the oven. Then she hopped up on the counter and began to read Revelations out of the Bible.

* * *

After Bobby arrived, there was a whirl of activity that Elena simply sat there and watched as she munched on her brownies. After he expressed admiration for the clean state of the house, Sam and Dean shared everything that happened with Anna and he told them about his time in the Dominican hunting zombies. It didn't take long for him to notice the tension between Elena and Dean but he kept his mouth shut. When a call came in and Bobby took it, he looked up at the boys as he hung up the phone.

"I've got a new case for you. A ghost." He said, handing Sam the details that he wrote down.

"I'll make a case file for you and have it ready." He said, looking up at them.

Sam and Dean nodded, turning to walk away. They immediately noticed that Elena wasn't moving from her place on the couch and they stopped short. Dean, Sam, and Bobby all looked at her.

"What about you?" Sam asked, looking down at her.

Elena's eyes went between all of them, landing on Dean last.

"I think I'm going to sit this one out. I'll stay here with Bobby and help out with research and other stuff." She said.

There was no argument… nothing. Just pain on Dean's face, resignation on Sam's face, and confusion on Bobby's face.

"Hey, that's all right. We'll pick you up for the next one." Sam said, attempting to smile but horribly failing at it.

Elena nodded, feeling emotion building up in her chest as she saw the devastated look on Dean's face.

"I'm just going to…" she trailed off, standing up and walking into the kitchen to clean up the mess she made when she baked her brownies.

She watched as Sam and Dean went in and out packing up the car. When they were done, they came back inside to get the case file from Bobby. Elena stood leaning against the counter as they walked towards the front door with Bobby following. It felt very strange to see them going on a hunt without her but Elena kept trying to convince herself that it was the right thing to do. They needed this. Or did they? Dean turned and looked at her as Sam and Bobby purposefully proceeded outside to leave them alone. They just stared at each other for a moment.

"It really wasn't what it looked like." he said.

Elena shook her head.

"I'm not staying behind because you kissed Anna. Well… not only because you kissed Anna. I am staying behind because we both need to think and process things and neither of us can do that if we're around each other. It's not permanent." Elena said.

He sighed and looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Please be here when I get back." he whispered.

Elena nodded.

"I will be." she agreed.

He nodded as well and turned to walk out the door. Bobby came back in moments later and they stood there watching as the Impala drove off.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Bobby asked once it was gone.

Elena turned to him and felt her resolve to not cry breaking.

"No." she whimpered before she bursted into tears and collapsed into his arms, stunning the hardened hunter as he naturally gathered her against his chest.

* * *

**Author's Note: Don't kill me please! I promise it will be okay!**

**1. I am NOT dragging out the separation. Dean is coming back the next chapter.**

**2. An Original is showing up in the next chapter!**

**3. Elena gives Castiel a firm talking to AND Castiel gives Elena a firm talking to. That'll be amusing, right?**

**4. REVIEW PLEASE AND DON'T HATE ME!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark Alana, Hollywood17, LineChokor, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, RHatch89, slayerdiaries, arizonagirl181, neontreeslover, chiwi, diehardromantic, DreamSinful, MaddAlice, DrawingMyHeartOut, Thera-Rocklynn, Meowgli, mandyv and the two guests for reviewing!**

**A few things: **

**1. I didn't remember that I put Elena in a trenchcoat last chapter until one of my lovely reviewers labeled Elena and Cas "Team Trenchcoat". I don't know who it was because it was an anonymous review, but I love it so I would just like to point out that it is fantastic and I love you for doing it.**

**2. Enjoy and review please when you're done!**

* * *

Elena opened her eyes slowly, unwilling to face the day that was just beginning. It hadn't even been a full twenty-four hours since Dean and Sam left and she was dreading going out there and not seeing them when she woke up for the first time in three months. She finally dragged herself out of bed and walked downstairs. Bobby was seated at his desk reading over a book. She walked into the kitchen and began searching for something to eat. There was absolutely nothing. Not even any eggs. She stared around for a moment, wondering what to do. When she walked back into the study, Bobby looked up at her.

"We need food." She said simply.

"Would you like me to get some?" Bobby asked, unsure of what the right response was to her statement.

"That's not necessary. Just give me your car keys and point me to the nearest grocery store please." Elena decided, holding out her hand.

Bobby didn't even dare to argue with her, handing over his car keys and a fake credit card before telling her the exact directions to the store. When she was gone for two hours, leaving Bobby quite worried and unsure if he should take his work truck out to find her, she trudged in with a guilty looking face.

"I probably shouldn't have gone to the grocery store." She mumbled.

What she really meant was, 'when I'm upset, food is my go-to method of dealing with it and I really shouldn't be allowed to go to any place with food alone'. Bobby followed her out to his car hesitantly only to see that his backseat and passenger seat were full of sacks of groceries. He choked a little as he saw the multitude of bags.

"How much did you buy?" he asked her with wide eyes.

Elena flushed and bit her lip.

"I can make you dinner." She offered in a small voice.

Just like that, Bobby offered to carry in the groceries and to let her use the car to go grocery shopping anytime she wanted with his fake credit cards as long as he got dinner out of the deal. Once he finished bringing them in, Elena shoo'd him out of the kitchen and put it all away where she thought it was best to go. She'd put all of the supernatural stuff in one cabinet and told Bobby that, unless it was to be in the hidden drawer, that's where it had to go. The rest of the cabinets were used for normal kitchen stuff. When everything was put away in its proper place, Elena set about on making Bobby and herself dinner.

She decided on making pasta with Italian salad and garlic bread. As she heated the tomato sauce over the stove, she heard the distinct noise of the flutter of wings. She sighed and dipped a wooden spoon into the pasta. When she turned to see Castiel standing there, she held the spoon out with her hand underneath it to catch any drips.

"Taste this." Elena instructed, ignoring the blazing look in his eyes and his clenched jaw.

He was angry but she couldn't have cared less because she was pretty pissed at him too.

"I do not require sustenance." He replied.

"I didn't ask." She shot back, pushing it up to his mouth.

He glared at her as he shook his head, the red sauce smearing against his chapped lips.

"Please, Cas?" she said pleadingly, dropping the tough act for a moment as she widened her eyes and pushed her lower lip out.

He begrudgingly opened his mouth, yet another person unable to resist that face she made, and accepted the spoon into his mouth. Elena smirked triumphantly as she let the liquid fall onto his tongue. She watched carefully and when his eyes widened and he snapped his mouth closed, she knew that the angel just had his first taste of human food. His tongue peeked out hesitantly and licked the remaining sauce that was on his lips.

"That is strange." he said as he contemplated the liquid.

"You liked it?" she asked.

"I did not dislike it." he answered.

"I suppose that's the closest thing I'm going to get to a compliment. See? Humans aren't so bad. Inferior my ass." She snapped, narrowing her eyes at him before turning to continue stirring the sauce.

"You are not supposed to be here." Castiel said gruffly, back to being angry.

"You're the one who led me here." Elena replied as she checked on the bread in the oven.

"I led you to the Winchesters. I went to where they were to speak with all of you and you were not with them. You are meant to remain with them so why are you here?" Cas demanded.

"We needed a break, some separation."

"You mean, you and Dean needed a break?" the angel corrected her.

Elena froze for a moment before pulling the sauce and the pasta off of the stove. Then she turned to face him, staring him down with her hands on her hips.

"That is absolutely none of your business." She said icily.

"It is when you have forsaken the duties put before you. We placed the Winchesters in your care, you are meant to keep them safe. Tell me how you can do that from thousands of miles away." Cas said, his eyes accusing her.

"They survived on simple ghost hunts years before they ever met me. I don't see why this one will be any different. They will be fine. And considering that I still don't know why the hell the Winchesters have been placed under my care or even what I am, I don't want to hear about the duties you've placed before me. While we're on the subject of duty, why don't you tell me exactly what your angelic duties are? Because mostly what I've seen so far is you being a gigantic dick and trying to kill people left and right who don't deserve to die." Elena said, stepping forward to glare at him.

"You do not understand what being an angel entails." He said dismissively, unaffected by her accusation.

"You're damn right I don't!" she growled.

She heard footsteps and Bobby walked in. His eyes narrowed when he saw Castiel and he looked at Elena.

"Everything all right?" he asked her.

"You are not needed." Castiel said.

"I was askin' Elena." he snapped at the angel.

Cas stared at him for a moment before he started forward and raised his hand. Elena caught his sleeved and yanked him backwards, causing him to stare down at her with wide eyes.

"Don't you dare." She hissed, not wanting him to knock Bobby out again with that power of his.

He stared down at her with a disgruntled expression at being told what to do. Elena turned and focused on Bobby.

"We're fine, Cas just needs to talk to me about some things. He needs to explain some things. Dinner is ready." Elena said, turning to pull out the garlic bread before turning back to them.

Bobby nodded. "You can take care of yourself." He said, the statement sounding more like a reminder to Castiel.

Elena didn't give the angel a chance to respond, instead she turned and walked outside with frustration and anger rolling off of her in waves. It was probably not the best time to confront Castiel about his actions in the past few weeks as she was at her emotional limit. But that didn't stop her.

"You cannot simply knock people out every time they do something you don't like!" she snapped, whirling around to glare up at him.

"Something has gone wrong in our communication if you think that you can tell me what I can and cannot do." Castiel answered as he walked up to stand rather close to her.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Castiel? When we first met, you weren't a hammer. You weren't threatening innocent people all the time and you certainly weren't attacking us." Elena demanded, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"I do not have to explain myself to you."

"Then I don't have to explain myself to you!" Elena shouted.

He looked surprised at her outburst for a moment before he recovered.

"I have made it clear that your place is with the Winchesters ready to keep them as safe as they can possibly be." Cas said.

"Well let me make it clear that until I get an explanation, you are doomed to be disappointed! Explain what the hell happened to you that made you so different! I will not accept your half-assed, vague answers anymore, Cas!" Elena growled.

He stared down at her, processing her words.

"You attempt to assign human intricacies to angels when in truth, we are nothing alike." Castiel said.

"So what? You meant what you said? You really are a heartless bastard?" Elena demanded.

"Angels were not created to have a heart. We were not created to feel emotions and to act on them. We were created to be warriors and in order to be a perfect warrior, we were made to be logical so that we could make clear decisions." He explained.

She shook her head, refusing to accept his words.

"I've seen you, Cas. I've been around you. You brought me clothes when you sent me back to 1979 because you didn't want me to be uncomfortable. You helped me heal Dean with gentleness and patience. You held me while I slept even though you were strong enough to shove me off. You promised me that my family would be protected and you helped me come clean to Dean and Sam about my abilities despite the fact that you were going to get in trouble for it. So I do not believe for one minute that you are cold or heartless." She ranted.

He looked as though he was shocked speechless.

"You are determined to see the best in everyone, Elena Gilbert." Cas stated.

"Is that such a bad thing?" she questioned.

"It can be, if it makes you naïve." He replied.

"Trust me, I've seen enough in my life to keep me from ever being naïve. I simply want to believe that the people that I choose to be around me are good people." Elena said.

"I have superiors who do not approve of angels going against their nature and becoming close to humans even if they place us with humans. Anna was around humans for two thousand years and she was never once permitted to enjoy any measure of a friendship, relationship, or otherwise with a human. She was very often prohibited from revealing herself to humans, sometimes being forced to keep her body invisible. I have already been… berated… for my attachment to you and the Winchesters. I do not wish for the angels to think that I am becomign too close to you three and remove me from the earth. If they do such a thing, I will most likely be replaced with Uriel or an angel who is similar to him. That is one thing that I think none of us wish to happen. That is why I have been withdrawing in the past three weeks. That is why I was acting like Uriel or any other angel. I was hesitant to show any favor towards any of you just in case I was being watched." Cas said.

Elena bit her lip and nodded, staring at the ground.

"So you're still Cas?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes, I believe that I am." He said seriously.

She smiled slightly and looked up at him.

"I will join Sam and Dean on the next hunt, I promise." She said, her eyes wide and truthful.

"I know that you are frustrated with not knowing what you are, Elena. I promise you in return that you will find out more about your abililtes quite soon." The angel said before glancing up at the sky.

"Do you have to leave?" Elena asked.

"I am being called back up to heaven. I should go before someone comes looking for us. I will find you soon, Elena." Cas promised her before disappearing.

Elena sighed and walked inside, pulling out a brownie mix and quickly gathering the ingredients.

* * *

It had been two days since she saw Sam and Dean and Elena was practically being driven crazy. That night, she was convinced that it would not be borring. When she was done making a flatbread pizza from scratch, she brought a few pieces on a plate to Bobby, who was looking stuff up for another hunter who called for help.

After she ate one piece, they heard a car pulling up to the house. Elena looked at Bobby with confusion and he shrugged back at her.

"You're not expecting anyone?" she asked.

He shook his head and they both grabbed guns, Elena a small handgun and Bobby a shotgun. She stood behind the older man as he pulled the kitchen door open. When they walked outside with their firearms raised, they watched as the person climbed out of the car. Elena immediately recognized him and sighed, lowering the gun.

"It's okay, Bobby. I know him." she said, smiling slightly.

"Who is he?" Bobby said, staring at the new person.

Elena walked forward as she shoved her gun into the back of her pants.

"How did you find me?" she asked without answering Bobby's question.

"It wasn't terribly difficult." Elijah replied, looking down at her as she stood before him.

"Considering that I should be very hard to find, it should have been difficult. I made sure of it." she replied.

"That is why I did not look for you in particular. I was never able to thank you for awakening me and I felt that I needed to rectify that. You mentioned a Bobby Singer along with the Winchesters. You forget that I have many contacts. Did you not think I might have them in the world of hunters?" Elijah asked.

Elena smirked up at him. She had forgotten how resourceful Elijah could be.

"Who the hell are you and how did you look me up?" Bobby demanded.

She turned to look at him and pressed her lips into a solemn line, knowing that the older hunter wouldn't likely react as well to a vampire's presence as Sam and Dean did.

"He is an old friend." She said first, wary of his reaction when he found out that Elijah was one of the original vampires.

Bobby slowly lowered his gun and she knew that wouldn't last long at all.

"He's also one of the originals of the kind of vampires that I know." She continued.

Just like that, his gun was raised again.

"Bobby, it's ok." Elena assured him, holding out her hands and walking towards him. "I know that you don't feel comfortable in this situation but I promise that everything is okay. You can go inside and stay there because Elijah can't get in there unless you invite him." Elena said.

"You should come inside too." He said, backing away towards the door as he glared at Elijah.

"I'll be fine, Bobby. He would never hurt me." she said with complete confidence.

"He's a vampire, Elena. He is hardwired to hurt you." Bobby scoffed.

"Elijah has the most control of any vampire I've ever known. He won't do anything. If you don't trust him, trust me." she said pleadingly.

Bobby gave her an unsure look before nodding. But instead of immediately turning and walking inside, he pressed the shotgun into her arms.

"Just in case." He said.

Elena smiled slightly as he turned to walk inside. When she turned to look at Elijah, he was staring after Bobby.

"It is interesting." He marveled.

"What is?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

"How quickly you manage to charm people into their willingness to protect you. Your ancestors had the same trait." Elijah replied, looking down at her and then the shotgun in her hand.

Elena grimaced and shook her head.

"I really hate being compared to my ancestors." She reminded him.

"I do not blame you. Katerina is not really a person one wants to be related to, is she?" he questioned, watching as she set the shotgun on the hood of one of the broken down cars.

Instead of answering, Elena turned to walk through the many stripped down metal frames of cars.

"Let's walk." She suggested.

Elijah fell into step with her as they trudged through the maze of automobiles.

"Speaking of those who will protect you, where are those two brothers who seem so fond of you?" he asked, looking around.

"They're out on a hunt." She replied shortly.

Elijah looked over at her with a confused look.

"Do I sense animosity between you and those hunters?" he asked.

Elena looked sideways at him and felt the sudden urge to spill everything to him. Elijah and her had almost always been honest with each other and she wanted to continue that.

"Hunter. Just one of them." She said before launching into the story of everything that happened since his undaggering.

Elijah listened patiently as she talked and talked. Elena couldn't deny that it felt fantastic to tell someone everything. Even with Caroline, she hadn't been able to admit everything to her because they weren't able to talk again and Elena didn't know everything then that she knew now. She finished off with everything to do with Anna and when she was done, she was sitting on the bed of truck and Elijah was standing in front of her.

"There was never any doubt in my mind that vampires, werewolves, and witches were the only supernatural creatures out there and this world is larger than even I could imagine. I have come across hunters before, of course. I have even heard of the legend of the Winchesters and their ancestors, the Campbells. But I have no idea what you could possibly be. You can really heal people?" Elijah asked with surprise.

"I've only ever healed myself, Dean, and Sam. I don't think that I can heal anyone else. Whatever I am, whatever power I have, it is all connected to the Winchester brothers." Elena explained, crossing her legs Indian style and leaning back on her hands.

"It is very interesting. The fact that angels exist is also quite remarkable. You seem to attract all manner of supernatural creatures." Elijah commented.

"What's going on with Klaus and Mystic Falls? Is everyone okay?" she asked, leaning forward with wide eyes.

"Everyone is all right. There hasn't been much happening since Esther was killed. Only the occasional outburst from the elder Salvatore." He said.

Elena sighed with relief and sat back.

"Unfortunately, I cannot remain here for very long. I agreed to meet my siblings in London immediately after meeting with you." Elijah informed her.

"Oh… that's all right." Elena nodded, staring down at her hands.

"You should not let go of all hopes and faith in the elder Winchester so easily." He said, causing Elena to look up at him with surprise.

"But… so much happened. I lied to him and he kissed another girl. He kissed an angel!" she argued pitifully.

"If that is all that can tear you two apart, then your relationship was not as strong as you made it seem. But you and I both know that it is strong. You do not truly want to be done with that man. You are just unsure as to whether or not you should trust him again or whether he should trust you but I do not think that you wish to be done with him permanently." Elijah said.

Elena squinted at him.

"Since when did you become so good at relationship stuff?" she questioned.

"Once again, I've been around for a very long time. Not all of the knowledge that I've acquired is specifically related to the supernatural. I was, after all, involved with both Tatia and Katerina Petrova romantically. If nothing else, those two taught me everything I've needed to know about trust and distrust." He said.

She nodded and sighed.

"You're right. I don't want to be done with him. He is so… normal. I mean, despite the fact that he is a hunter. He's…" she trailed off.

"He's not a vampire." Elijah finished for her.

Elena looked at him with wide eyes. She began to stammer out a denial, not wanting him to be offended even if that was exactly what was so different and attractive about Dean.

"Believe me, Elena. It does not offend me. I understand your need to find someone who is not a vampire. We are very intense and a lot to take in even for each other. I cannot imagine how it was to experience a relationship with a vampire as a human. You are impressive for even trying to make it work and remaining sane." Elijah said.

"Oh you haven't heard? I'm not sane." Elena said, cracking a smile.

He let out a short chuckle. They both heard a slight ring and Elijah pulled out his phone to check it.

"That would be Rebekah. She is expecting me at the airport in Chicago in a few hours." Elijah explained.

Elena sighed and hopped off of the back of the truck.

"You should get going." She said, turning to walk back to the house.

Elijah fell into step with her once again and they remained silent as they walked back.

"I have not said it yet, but I am grateful that you pulled the dagger out of my chest. Because of that my family, including Klaus, has reunited. We all have you to thank." He said as they reached his car.

"I notice that you left the Mini Cooper behind." She said with amusement.

"I am letting Rebekah drive it. She developed a certain fondness for it when she was awoken." He corrected her.

"Oh, good. I'm glad someone is getting use out of it." Elena nodded.

Elijah pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her.

"This is my phone number. If you ever need anything, anything at all, contact me and I will come to help you immediately. I broke our agreement when I allowed Klaus to live and I have not yet repaid you for that momentary lapse in my judgment. So anything you need, I will help." He assured her.

"Thank you, Elijah." Elena said, pulling him into a hug.

She didn't even care if he didn't like hugs. It was happening whether he liked it or not. Elijah hugged her back softly before looking down at her as she pulled away.

"Good luck with your siblings." She said with a smile.

"Good luck with everything else." Elijah replied before climbing into his car and driving away.

When he was gone, she grabbed the shotgun and turned to walk inside. Bobby was hovering nervously and she saw that he'd cleaned and put away all the dishes and stored the rest of the pizza in the fridge.

"I told you everything would be all right." Elena said, smiling at him before walking to the pantry and pulling it open to reveal more boxes of brownie mix.

Bobby stared with wide eyes as she pulled one out and began gathering the ingredients for it. It was her third mix to make since the two brothers left.

* * *

On the fourth afternoon of Sam and Dean being gone, Bobby received a phonecall from the boys saying that they were heading back. He didn't say a word about Elena despite Sam's not so subtle attempt to get him to talk about her. The poor girl had told him everything that happened with the angel, Anna, and the complications between her and Dean. He was not willing to get between all of that. When Elena finally came walking down after an afternoon nap, he informed her immediately that the brothers were headed home. She didn't respond with much, acting surprised before going to the kitchn and fixing a huge, fancy breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and omelets for them.

When she was done eating and cleaning up the kitchen after their breakfast, she immediately escaped to the upstairs, citing the need to take a shower and clean up her own room a bit. When she didn't come back down for three hours, Bobby knew that he was avoiding the downstairs area. The front door swung open at about one o'clock in the afternoon and he stood to greet the brothers. Dean's eyes immediately flashed to the stairs as Bobby held out his hand to shake. When Dean accepted his hand, he pulled him in close.

"She'll be down when she's ready. Give her time." he murmured before pulling away and nodding at the older brother.

Sure enough, about thirty minutes later in the middle of their explanation of the case they just took care of, they all heard the stairs creaking under Elena's light weight and a slight inhale of breath when they all stopped talking to listen for her. A few seconds later, she walked into the room with an uncertain look on her face. Her eyes didn't even have to search for Dean. They just fell on him naturally and she looked over him, sighing with relief when she saw that he was all right. Then her eyes inspected Sam for injury and she looked satisfied as she looked at Bobby with an expression that reminded him of a terrified deer in the headlights.

"I'm going to get food." She said quickly, darting forward and grabbing his keys off of his desk and fleeing from the room.

Dean was still staring at the spot where she'd been standing regretfully once she disappeared.

"She didn't even say hello." He muttered.

"Well she didn't speak to me, either." Sam reminded his brother.

"You two idjits just gotta give the girl time. She's been pretty overwhelmed in the past few days." Bobby said before telling him about the two visitors Elena received and what he heard of their conversations.

* * *

Elena quickly returned to the house after going to a burger joint and getting the food to go. She pulled the bags into her arms and walked inside, dropping them on the table and looking up to see the males looking at her from the study where they were still all sitting in the exact same spots that she left them.

"Well what are you waiting for? Come get food." She said, gesturing to the many bags that she'd brought in.

"For all of us?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"Of course." She said, finally smiling.

They walked in and she sorted out the food, putting it on a plate before handing to him. When Dean stepped forward to accept his food, Elena handed the plate to him as well as a box with a pie in it. She reached out to hand it to him and their eyes met as it went from her hands to his.

"Thank you." he said softly.

They both knew that his expression of gratitude wasn't just for the food. It was for the fact that she was still at the house when he returned. Elena nodded before grabbing her food and immediately running upstairs.

"Don't be offended. She does it a lot now. But you can look forward to brownies." Bobby said.

"Brownies?" Sam and Dean asked.

Bobby gestured to the trashcan where several boxes of brownie mix were piled in along with the discarded remains of the ingredients to make it.

"She's been makin' two batches a day since you left. I don't know where she's puttin' it all when she eats it but I swear to God, I've gained about fifteen pounds in the last four days." Bobby said.

Sam laughed slightly while Dean looked guilty. They all knew that Elena only made brownies when she was stressed and upset. Neither of those emotions were ones that made Dean feel great about himself. He'd caused it and the guilt from that made him bow his head and sit at the table, eating his food in silence. When he was done, he grabbed a bottle of whiskey out of the alcohol cabinet and walked outside.

"He started drinking a lot on this case. I think… nah… I know it's cause of what happened with him and Elena but that's not it. His nightmares and flashbacks of hell got worse too without her there." Sam explained to Bobby.

Little did either of them know, but a pair of listening ears heard that explanation from the stairs and a sniffle was followed by the sound of bare feet running back upstairs and into her room.

* * *

When Elena finally came back downstairs after discovering that Dean had picked up drinking to cope as well as the fact that his flashbacks and nightmares were getting worse, she only found Sam and Bobby in the study looking over the case file of the haunting they just worked on. They looked up when she entered. Neither of them missed her eyes darting around to catch a glimpse of Dean.

"He went to the bar in town." Sam said.

Elena's eyes flashed and she nodded.

"I'm going to…" she trailed off, not knowing how to explain to Bobby what she was going to do.

"The car is yours." He said, picking up the keys and tossing them to her.

Elena stared at them for a moment before nodding gratefully and turning to run upstairs. When she came back down, she was in a dark red long sleeved dress with a belt tied around her waist and a pair of black flat gladiator sandals with her purse hanging off her shoulder.

"I'll see you later!" she called over her shoulder.

They both shook their heads at her. Despite the fact that her and Dean were in a fight and weren't speaking to each other, it was easy to see that they still cared about each other by their actions. A few moments later, Elena came running back in and threw her arms around Sam's shoulders from behind, placing a kiss on his cheek.

"I'm glad you're back." she whispered, ruffling his hair before turning to run out once again, leaving him with a grin on his face.

* * *

When Elena arrived at the bar that she knew Dean would be at, she parked Bobby's car next to the black Impala before getting out to walk inside. The bar was a little bit crowded but she easily spotted Dean at the bar hunched over a beer. She slowly walked through the crowd and slid into the spot next to him.

"Not interested." He grumbled, turning to glare at her.

His eyes widened when they took her and her appearance in. Elena simply stared at him for a moment before turning to the bartender.

"I'll have what he's having." She said, cocking her head to Dean.

"ID?" the bartender asked and she handed over one of her many fake IDs.

When he gave her the beer and wandered off after giving her a flirty grin, she didn't even turn to look at Dean. They both just sat there drinking and not speaking. It felt as if there was nothing to say even though both of them knew that there was plenty to say. It took an entire two bottles of beer for either of them to say anything.

"Sam said your flashbacks and dreams got worse when you left." She said softly messing with a napkin on the bar.

Dean flinched visibly next to her.

"I don't wanna talk about it." he said hoarsely and Elena looked at him with an incredulous look.

"You've never said that to me about this." she reminded him, shocked at his refusal.

He didn't say anything, just sipping at his beer.

"How is Anna?" the words slipped out of her mouth before she could help it and she wished more than anything that she could take them back.

He finally turned to face her and his green eyes were blazing with emotions.

"Anna kissed me so that I could figure out that, despite the fact that you lied to me, you were the only one I wanted to be kissing. She was helping me." Dean said defensively.

"Well thank God for that. I suppose that kissing you was the only way she could achieve that." Elena spat out sarcastically, knowing that the alcohol in her system was fueling her.

"Do you forget that I ran to you immediately after it happened? That I didn't even look back at her because all I wanted to do was to make sure that I didn't lose you?" he snapped, his eyes narrowing.

"Here's an idea, if you don't want to lose me, don't go around kissing other girls." She shot back, slamming her beer on the counter and catching the attention of a few people around them.

"Well if you don't want to lose me, how about you stop going behind my back and deciding what I need to know and what you can lie to me about?" Dean growled.

"Right! Cause I only did that to decieve you and make sure that you were out of the loop. How about you finally learn to see things from other people's points of view instead of making judgments early about them?" she said, pulling her purse up onto her shoulder before sliding off the barstool and turning to stomp away.

"It doesn't matter what your reasoning was! You lied to me about Sam and you kept lyin' to me for a whole week and a half!" Dean said, his voice raising as he followed her, stumbling slightly as he was a bit more inebriated than Elena was.

"You kissed another girl!" she yelled over her shoulder as she pushed through the crowd.

By that time, the entire bar was watching them. As they approached the door, the owner of the place met them.

"If one of you want to give me your phone, I'll call you a ride." Elena sighed and dug through her purse, handing him her phone.

"Call Sam then give me back my phone. I'll be outside. I'm not spending another second in here with him!" she said, thrusting her finger at Dean before slamming her way outside.

The bar owner worked on calling Sam as Dean stomped out behind her.

* * *

Sam was in the kitchen eating leftover brownies when his phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out to see Elena's number flashing. He answered it, wondering what was going on.

"Hey." He said in greeting when he held it up to his ear.

"Is this Sam?" a male voice asked.

"Yes?" he said questioningly.

"I own the bar on main street. The owner of this phone is here along with a male. They got in a small yelling fight in my bar and now they're outside waiting on a ride. Is there any way you can get up here?" the man asked.

Sam sighed and shook his head.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes." He said, standing up and picking the keys up for Bobby's work truck.

When he hung up, he explained the situation to Bobby before jumping in the truck and heading into town. As he pulled into the parking lot for the bar, he saw his brother and Elena immediately. She was pacing in front of the Impala and Bobby's car with her arms crossed. Dean was leaning against the Impala trunk watching her with narrowed eyes. Sam pulled up and next to Bobby's car. When he climbed out, they both looked at him with slightly guilty expressions.

"We're taking the Impala home so that you don't freak out about leaving it in a bar parking lot." Sam said, wrestling the keys from Dean's grip.

Elena narrowed her eyes at the older Winchester before scrambling into the backseat and facing the window with a pout and angry eyes. When they got back to Bobby's, Sam led them inside as they continued to remain silent. They walked inside and found Bobby waiting for them. He observed their similar stances, both with crossed arms and stubborn, slightly glazed over expressions.

"They said anything?" Bobby asked Sam.

"Not a word." Sam replied, turning to look at them.

"You know, you two are weirder than I thought. Most people, you get 'em tipsy or drunk, you can't get them to shut up. When you two start drinking, you quiet down and keep all of your ragin' thoughts inside." Bobby said, causing Sam to chuckle lightly.

The two looked between them with matching glares before Elena walked past them and to the stairs, running up them two at a time. They heard the door slam shut and Sam and Bobby turned to look at Dean.

"I don't wanna talk about it." he growled before stumbling to the couch, falling on it and quickly falling asleep due to his drunken state.

* * *

A few hours later, when Sam and Bobby had also gone to sleep, Dean was woken up by the soft padding of bare feet on the floor. He sat up and looked around to see Elena walking into the kitchen. She was wearing cotton shorts and a t-shirt with her hair thrown up into a bun. He stared at her for a moment before he saw her fill a glass with water from the sink. He slowly clambered up, walking into the kitchen, attempting to be quiet. Elena tensed and immediately turned, her eyes falling on him. They didn't widen or anything as if she expected him to be there.

When he opened his mouth to speak, she shook her head and pointed to Sam, who was fast asleep on the floor. Dean was shocked when Elena put down the glass in the sink and reached out, taking his hand and pulling him out of the room and upstairs. They walked into her room and she immediately climbed into her bed. When she looked back at him simply standing there, she turned and held her hand out.

"I may not be able to fix everything that's happened right now, but I can make one thing better. I can be here for you with the nightmares." She whispered, her eyes wide and pleading.

He slowly walked to the bed and sat on it. Elena leaned forward and pushed his jacket off. He'd gotten back in the habit of wearing all of his clothes to bed when they'd separated and he was a bit relieved to feel the weight of the jacket disappear. He was, however, surprised when Elena pushed the flannel shirt off of his torso and lifted his t-shirt over his head. Then she stood and handed him a pair of cotton pajama pants that he'd left in the room about a month ago. As she turned and peeled the blankets back, he pulled off his jeans and slid the pajama pants on.

Elena turned back and pulled him into the bed, dragging the blankets over them and lying down. They laid on either side of the bed staring at each other for a few minutes. It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable at all. It felt as though all of the weight that had built up on their shoulders was slowly slipping away as they spent more time in each other's presence. Finally, Elena scooted over and folded herself into his arms. Her lips met his in a soft kiss and they remained still, simply touching lips, for several moments. Then she pulled away and their eyes fluttered open.

They shared another long look before Elena buried her head in his bare chest and her eyes closed once more. Both of them fell asleep quickly, their bodies satisfied to once again be in each other's presence. It felt natural. It felt amazing.

* * *

**Author's Note: I promised a quick reunion! I hope you liked it! Next chapter we get back to Elena going on a trip with the boys. Review please! Elena's outfit is on my profile.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, mandyv, Dark Alana, arizonagirl181, LineChokor, Limetka.111, PoisonedViolet, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, slayerdiaries, chiwi, RHatch89, neontreeslover, MaddAlice, Dreaming while awake, Bry Elizabeth M, and DrawingMyHeartOut for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. Guess what! It's a happy and fun chapter! I think we all need it after the last few chapters of sadness and drama and feels. So I hope you enjoy it and feel happy afterward.**

**2. Also, something some of you might have been waiting for. There are some minor lemons in here. And by minor I mean, there is no sex yet. Sorry people, you'll just have to wait a bit longer.**

* * *

Elena immediately took in her surroundings when she woke up. She didn't even open her eyes at first. She'd woken up to warmth surrounding her that had been missing for a while. She was pressed against Dean's chest and his arms were wrapped around her. Their legs were tangled up and, when she opened her eyes, she saw that sun was streaming in from the window and falling on their bodies. Elena sighed softly and looked up to see that Dean was still asleep. He was flat on his back with her lying across his chest. His eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly open, causing him to make soft breathy noises.

Her hair had come out of its bun sometime in the night so it was splayed across his chest and forming a curtain around her face. She lifted her hand to push it behind her shoulders. When her hand returned to his chest, she found that her fingers were tracing the black tattoo on his chest. She felt his muscles tense and relax under her touch and knew that he was awake. Her eyes very slowly dragged up his chest, throat, and face to finally rest on those brilliant green eyes.

"Did you have a nightmare?" she asked, her voice still hoarse from sleep.

He shook his head slowly and she sighed with relief.

"Thank you." he replied and she dropped her eyes to his chest again.

"I didn't really do anything." She said quietly, her fingers moving away from the tattoo and drawing swirls on his chest.

As they moved lower and drew designs on his stomach, she felt him tremble a bit beneath her touch and he let out a soft groan.

"Elena." he mumbled, causing her eyes to flash up to him once again.

"Hmm?" she murmured.

His eyes were closed and he looked a bit flushed. Elena blushed when she realized that she was causing certain reactions in his body. She stopped, laying her hand flat on his muscled abdomen and his eyes popped open to stare down at her. Suddenly, the build-up of not touching or kissing as passionately as both of them wanted to for an entire two weeks dawned on them at the exact same time. Elena inhaled deeply and slowly pushed herself up until their faces were level.

"I'm sorry I kissed Anna." He whispered.

"Doesn't matter." She murmured truthfully before pressing her lips to his.

They remained that way for a moment before Dean's arms drifted down her body and wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss. Elena pressed forward and somehow ended up sliding on top of him with her legs straddling his hips and her hair falling like a curtain around their faces as they began kissing deeper and more lustfully. She could feel the evidence of his arousal pressing against her core and it sent a flash of heat through her body. She sat up and yanked him up with her, wrapping her legs around his waist as her hands explored his soft back. When he winced, her eyes widened and she pulled away.

"What's wrong?" she whispered, panicked by the flash of pain in his eyes.

"I just have a bruise from the hunt. It's not a big deal." He said dismissively, attempting to bring her back to more kissing.

Elena gave in but also placed her hand over his bruise and concentrated on healing as he kissed down her neck. The warmth of her power flowed through both of them and he looked up at her with surprised eyes.

"It's getting easier for you." he said softly, reaching up to stroke her hair away from her face.

She didn't answer, simply rocking against his hips and causing his eyes to slide closed as a deep groan escaped from his mouth.

"I missed you." she admitted in a soft voice, dragging her hands down his chest and towards his navel.

"Mmm." He purred as her hips shifted again.

His head fell back and allowed for her lips to attack his throat eagerly, placing soft open-mouthed kissed all over. When her hand accidentally slipped and brushed over his arousal that was prominent through the thin pajama pants, his eyes shot open and his hands clenched on her hips, and his head fell onto her shoulder.

"Elena… God you are driving me insane." He said through gritted teeth when her hips began to rock again.

She felt heat shoot straight to her core at the desire in his voice and she nipped softly at his skin where his shoulder met his neck.

"I… can't… help… it…" Elena said huskily between kisses on his neck and shoulders.

All of the sudden, her back was on the bed and Dean was hovering over her.

"I missed you too." He said hoarsely.

His hands drifted down her torso and captured the hem of her shirt. Elena lifted her arms above her head slowly and he began pulling it up. When it was off, his hands went to her bare hips and roamed her soft skin with an intense stare into her eyes. Elena watched as he slid down on the bed a bit and pressed a kiss to the area just below her belly button. Her head fell back as he began kissing up her stomach softly as his hands held her hips, stroking circles into them. He kissed every inch of her stomach that he could find. When he arrived at her bra-covered breasts, he exhaled before dragging his lips up the valley between her soft mounds. A small cry escaped her mouth when he gave a wet kiss to the top of each of her breasts.

His hands slid up her torso and pushed her arms over her head, entwining their fingers before kissing up her chest to her throat, then to her jaw. Finally his lips settled on hers and she accepted him easily. Her legs unwound from his to wrap around his hips and bring them in closer contact. It also pressed her heated core into his impressive arousal. He inhaled sharply along with her and his arms wrapped around her back, pulling her closer to him. Elena was struck with how gentle he was when he returned to kissing her. She'd seen him hunting and fighting and he was rough and very passionate. Even when he kissed her sometimes, she was left wondering if her lips would be bruised. But at that moment, it seemed like he was doing everything to ensure that he was gentle but, at the same time, he wasn't holding back at all.

Elena's hands lifted and tangled in his hair as they continued to kiss softly, their lips dancing around the others' mouths. When his hands dropped to stroke the area on her back just above the waistband of her shorts, she let out a soft moan.

"We should stop." He mumbled against her lips.

She disagreed with this far too much. To show her disapproval of his statement, her hand slid down his chest and stomach to settle over his arousal. He threw his head back and let out a groan as she experimentally stroked his length through his pants and boxers.

"I disagree." She replied, brushing her thumb over the tip and causing his hips to buck towards her.

His eyes popped open to stare down at her with surprise and hesitation.

"We said we didn't want to… ah…" he let out a moan as she stroked him again.

"… we didn't want to take it too fast." He finished, breathing heavily as he did so.

"This isn't fast. This is perfect. If you feel like it's wrong, stop me now." She whispered.

He stared down at her for a moment before removing her hand. Elena's heart sank a little. Until his hands touched her stomach right over her flannel pajama shorts. After stroking back and forth a few times, his hand slid into the shorts. Elena could barely breath as he played with the lacy waistband of her underwear.

"Dean." She whined softly as he teased her by refusing to go any lower.

"Are you sure?" he murmured, still hesitating to go any further so that it wouldn't ruin anything between them.

"Please!" she pleaded, arching her back up towards him.

His hand finally drifted lower to stroke the outside of her panties experimentally. Elena let out a soft moan and buried her head in his shoulder as his finger expertly found **that** spot through the fabric. As his thumb hooked around the fabric to pull it aside, a loud knock sounded on the door. Both of them were startled, Dean's hand ripping out of her shorts like he was caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

"Hey, Elena? I'm sorry to wake you up but do you know where Dean is? I can't find him anywhere and I'm a little worried." Sam's voice floated through the door.

Elena groaned and Dean rolled off of her to allow her to pull on her t-shirt. He wrapped the sheets around his waist and turned to watch as she opened the door.

"Hi Sam." She sighed, feeling a lot of frustration towards the younger Winchester at that point.

"Hey, have you…" he began to say again.

Elena pushed the door open further to reveal Dean sitting on her bed giving his little brother a glare. Sam recognized the glare. He'd been getting it ever since Dean was sixteen. It was his 'you interrupted me and a girl and you are going to die later' glare. Sam stared between them with wide eyes and cleared his throat, recognizing the flush in Elena's cheeks and the way that Dean held the blankets knotted right over his crotch.

"Oh… um… I'm sorry. I'll just… we have a case so… I'll go downstairs. I, uh… yeah." He nodded, turning to run off.

Elena turned back to Dean and they stared at each other for a minute.

"The moment's over, huh?" Dean asked.

She shrugged and went back to the bed, kneeling next to him and leaning forward to kiss him softly, her hand stroking his cheek. When their eyes met after the kiss, she bit her lip.

"How about we start over? No betrayals or anything to get in our way. Just you and me starting over and trying to do it right this time. No lying. Nothing." She suggested.

"I think… that is a great idea." Dean agreed.

"Good. Starting now, blank slate. Another chance to get things right." Elena said, smiling as she pressed her lips to his once more.

* * *

Once Dean put his clothes back on and went downstairs, Elena took a quick shower, feeling frustrated that their alone time hadn't gone as planned that morning. She'd have to figure out a way to get back at Sam for that later although, judging from the look on Dean's face, Sam was probably going to pay for it one way or another. When she was done, she put on a pair of jeans with converse, a long sleeved dark purple shirt, and a large black open front sweater. She let her hair dry normally to where it was slightly wavy. When she bounded downstairs, she saw the boys gathered in the study. Dean was in new clothing and Sam was looking at her guiltily.

"What's going on?" she asked, walking to stand behind Bobby and peer over the desk at what they were looking at.

"You're going to love this one. A man is walking out of a bar and dies of ten stab wounds." Bobby said, looking up at her.

Elena looked at him with a questioning glance.

"That doesn't seem very remarkable to me." she said.

"Witnesses say there was no one around with a knife, no one walked up to him, and his shirt didn't have any tears in it. Just stab wounds." He continued.

She looked at Sam and Dean, who were looking impressed by this as well.

"Sounds awfully witchy to me." Dean said.

"Can't say I'm not tired of dealing with witches." Elena sighed, feeling bad because her best friend was a witch.

"You can say that again." Dean said, standing up to stretch out.

Elena's eyes dropped to the sliver of skin that was revealed by his shirt riding up and felt a flash of heat shoot through her body. Then her eyes moved to Sam and she glared at his back, cursing him in her mind.

"Where is this happening?" Elena asked.

"That's the good news. It's only about an hour drive to Sioux City, Iowa." Dean said, pulling the Impala keys out of his pocket.

"Good. I like that." Elena said, smiling.

"Oh, you might want to pack some stuff. We kind of can't go in as FBI." Dean said.

"Why not?" Elena questioned.

"We forgot to mention the best part. There happens to be a gigantic magic convention in Sioux City. Some of the best magicians in the country are going to be there and magicians are some of the best conmen in the world. And conmen can see straight through cons so there's a chance they might see right through our FBI badges." Sam said.

"So what? Bring my bunny and a top hat?" Elena asked with a laugh.

Dean and Sam exchanged looks.

"What?" she demanded, sobering up.

"Well… usually the females… well… they're… uh… assistants." Sam shrugged.

Elena's eyes narrowed at them.

"And what do assistants wear?" she asked through gritted teeth, placing her hands on her hips.

They both fell silent.

"Something… erm… attractively… uh… impressive." Dean suggested.

Her eyebrow rose as her lips formed a thin line.

"You mean to tell me that I basically have to dress like a slut and act like an 'assistant'?" she demanded.

"Not like a slut… just… you know…" Sam trailed off.

Elena huffed and whirled around to stomp out of the room.

"She's never coming back down, is she?" Dean said resignedly, looking after her as they heard her stomping up the stairs.

Surprisingly enough, Elena came back down the stairs a few minutes later with a duffle bag and her backpack.

"Are we ready?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes at them.

"Yeah." Dean nodded, grabbing Sam's arm and following her out as she walked outside and threw open the trunk to the Impala, throwing her bags on top of the weapons and slamming it closed.

She turned to Bobby without looking at the brothers.

"There is leftover food in the fridge that should last you until we get back. I trust that you can last on that instead of going to get burgers and fries for every meal?" she asked in a disapproving tone.

"Yeah I can." He said, bowing his head like a scolded child.

"Good." She nodded, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his cheek before climbing into the car.

"Take care of her. And be nice." Bobby said, narrowing his eyes mainly at Dean.

"I don't think we have to worry about Dean being nice to Elena." Sam scoffed.

Dean turned to glare at his brother.

"If you think I'm not gettin' you back for interrupting you are wrong." He huffed, turning to stomp to the driver's seat.

Elena was leaning forward with her arms crossed on the seat when he climbed in. He looked over to see her smiling deviously.

"What?" he questioned, a slow smile spreading on his face.

"I'm just thinking that we might have to kick Sam out of the motel later." She whispered, kissing the area just behind his ear as her arms wrapped around his chest.

"Hmm… sounds good." He said in a gravelly voice, leaning his head back to reveal his neck.

"Oh God… I don't want to see this." Sam grumbled as he climbed into the car.

"Get over it." Elena and Dean said at the same time.

Sam sighed as Elena leaned back in her seat with a triumphant smile and curled up to sit there for the next hour.

* * *

When they pulled into the town, they were immediately assaulted with the advertisments for the many magicians in town for the big weekend. Sam and Dean decided that they needed to stay at the hotel where the magicians were just so that they could be in the middle of everything. Before they went in the hotel, they saw one of the magicians performing at the corner of the stretet. They climbed out of the Impala and walked towards him. The magician was doing a card trick.

"This, this isn't a trick, okay? I don't do tricks. This is a demonstration…" the man said, shuffling the cards around his hands. "…. about demons and angels…"

Elena brushed her hair out of her face and the magician's eye caught hers as he continued to perform. He threw her a smirk, eyeing her appreciatively.

"… love and lust…" he said, not taking his gaze off of her.

"What a douchebag." Dean scoffed, causing Elena to smile and shake her head at his jealousy that he would never admit.

She noticed a camera crew standing in front of the man.

"… all that stuff mixed up in my head." He said, gesturing for an audience member to walk forward.

"That's Jeb Dexter." Sam said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I don't even want to know how you know that." Dean said, shaking his head.

"He's famous, kind of." The younger brother said, rolling his eyes.

"But whatever happens, no matter how…" the magician said dramatically

"For what? Douchebaggery?" Dean demanded, glaring at him.

"… messed up it gets, don't touch me, okay?" he looked for reassurance from the audience. "For your own safety."

Jeb Dexter inhaled and exhaled deeply before imitating something that looked like a seizure. One of his hands grabbed for the cards and threw them at the window behind him.

"Go back to hell, demon!" he shouted, throwing his arms out dramatically

One card, the ace of diamonds, was stuck to the window. Jeb Dexter dragged his hand over the window, shwoing that the card was on the other side of the glass.

"Is this your card?" he breathed.

The audience began applauding eagerly as Dean, Sam, and Elena drifted away with Elena walking between the brothers.

"You've got to be kidding me. A fake demon possession?" Dean said as they walked. "I can't believe people actually fall for that crap."

"It's not all crap." Sam shrugged.

"What part of that was not a steaming pile of bullshit?" Dean demanded, causing Elena to smile at his refusal to believe that when he dealt with stranger things every day.

"Okay, that was crap, but that's not all magicians." Sam said defensively. "It takes skill."

"Oh, right, right, I forgot. You were actually into this stuff, weren't you?" Dean asked, grinning over at his brother.

"Really?" Elena asked, looking over at Sam with a matching smile.

"I mean, he had, like, a deck of cards and a wand." Dean said, causing Elena to giggle and nudge Sam jokingly.

"Dude, I was thirteen. It was a phase." Sam scoffed

"Just… it bugs me. You know, playing at demons and, and magic, when the real thing will kill you bloody." Dean said, becoming serious again.

"Like a guy who drops dead of ten stab wounds without a single tear in his shirt?" Elena questioned

"That's what I'm talking about." Dean nodded, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and bringing her in close.

Sam smiled at the two, glad to see that everything was back to normal.

* * *

When they got up to their room, Elena immediately went to the bathroom to get ready.

"We were teasing you a bit, Elena. You can come with us and do FBI stuff. We have a badge for you." Dean said through the door.

"No thanks." She replied, her voice muffled.

She emerged a few minutes later with her hair perfectly curled, her make-up applied, and a black buttoned up woolen coat on that came to her knees. On her feet was a pair of laced-up blood red sky high heels. Both of their jaws dropped a bit when they saw her. She grinned at them.

"I am going to do exactly as you said but not because you said. The way I think about it is, who sees and hears everything their boss or magician says and does? Who loves nothing better than to talk and gossip about everything in their lives? If I can make all of the young, slutty assistants talk to me, I may get a pretty good lead from them." Elena shrugged.

"That's a great idea." Dean said, nodding at her.

"I know, I saw a group of them in the bar. I'll go down and get myself in their group while you go question whoever you need to question." Elena said, gesturing to their suits.

She leaned forward and kissed Dean's cheek, causing her perfume to wash over him delightfully, before she walked out of the room with a small black clutch purse in her hands.

* * *

Sam and Dean went to Patrick Vance's hotel room first to meet with his assistant and to see if anything was out of the ordinary.

"So did your boss have any enemies that you know of?" Dean asked, watching as she sorted through all of the props

"Vance had plenty of enemies." She said, rolling her eyes.

"How so?" Sam questioned.

"He would steal from other magicians. All the time." the young woman shrugged.

"What would he steal?"

"Stage effects, closeup techniques, anything he could get his hands on." she said.

"Is that enough to get him killed?" Dean asked.

"These guys take this stuff pretty seriously." The assistant said, bending down to move a white cloth and revealing a white rabbit. "There you are."

She bent down to pick it up and began to pet the rabbit.

"Did you find anything weird in Vance's stuff? Well, weirder?" Dean asked, eyeing the rabbit with a wrinkled nose.

"Matter of fact, I did." she said.

She set the bunny in a bag gently and pulled out a tarot card, the Ten of Swords. The image on the card was of ten swords sticking out of a man's back.

"I'm guessing this didn't belong to Vance." Sam asked, flipping the card over and back.

"He hated card tricks. Never wanted them around. Let alone in his precious cape." She said, shaking her head.

Sam and Dean walked down to the lobby of the hotel after talking to the deceased magician's assistant. They wanted to peek into the bar to see if Elena had gotten anywhere with her infiltration of the rest of the assistants.

"So do we think that one of the magicians did this? Revenge at Vance for stealing something out of his show?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, that just leaves the question of…" Dean trailed off when his eyes fell on the table of young women.

"Dean? The question of…?" Sam asked, waving his hand in front of his face as he urged him to finish his sentence.

"… who?" Dean whispered, his eyes widening.

Sam looked over and his eyes widened as he caught sight of what Dean was staring at. Not only had Elena managed to fit in perfectly with the table of assistants, but she looked just like one of them. She was wearing a black halter dress that came to about mid-thigh with her jacket tossed carelessly over the back of her chair. Her bronze legs were crossed and her heels made them look about ten miles long. She was holding a wine glass with the dark red liquid about halfway drunk. A sly smile was on her face as she chatted with the other women. Both of them wondered exactly what she was saying to make them all laugh like beautiful maniacs.

* * *

Elena hadn't found it hard to get herself into the magician's assistant group. They noticed her walk up to the bar and take off her jacket. One of them asked if she was an assistant and she confirmed that she was. They practically dragged her over to their table after that. She immediately discovered their topic of conversation and worked hard to keep a blush from filling her cheeks. It didn't work but they must have thought the redness came from the second glass of wine she was sipping on.

"Ugh, they are always so needy. Always, can you do this? Can you do that? Oh baby I can't work very hard tonight. I had to do a show. Can you do all the work? I know you love being on top." one of them, a girl named Angela, said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yeah, I'd like to see them walking around on stage in those heels while having to look pretty and help them out at the same time. We should be the ones getting treated in the damn bed, not them." Another assistant, Olivia, sighed.

"Oh it would be nice, if all of those fucking magicians weren't so damn lazy." Angela countered, causing all of them to laugh.

"What about you?" One of the women, Callie, questioned Elena.

"Oh, well mine actually isn't that bad. He's… well he's gentle. And he always… always… cares about what I'm feeling rather than just what he's feeling. He may be an amateur magician just starting out but he is anything but an amateur in bed." Elena said with a wink, thinking of Dean as she spoke.

"Are you serious?" Olivia demanded, looking a little pissed.

"Oh yeah." Elena nodded, leaning forward with a smirk.

"God you are lucky. Mine is a fat old bastard but he gives me an extra three thousand a month if I sleep with him. I guess you could call me a whore but I'll tell you to go fuck yourself as I sit in my six hundred dollar dress." Callie shrugged.

"Hmm… I guess I am lucky. He has these abs. I could spend the rest of my life worshipping those things." Elena sighed truthfully, a sly grin forming on her face as she pictured them and the rest of the women alternated between laughing and swooning at the thought.

She heard footsteps behind her and all of the women looked up with wide eyes. Elena could feel his presence before his hand slid onto her bare shoulder.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you ladies, but I have need of my assistant." Dean said, his thumb stroking over her shoulder.

Elena grinned at the suggestive nature of his statement even if he didn't even mean it that way. She gathered up her purse and finished off her wine as the rest of the womens' mouths dropped open at the sight of him.

"You were not lying. Yours is better." Angela murmured.

Elena grinned at her and nodded, sliding out of the chair. She looked at Dean to see him looking a bit confused but mostly concentrating on her outfit. Elena didn't bother to put on the jacket because she liked the look in his eyes when he studied her legs.

"I suppose I'll see you later. It's time to take care of my boy." She said with a wink, finding that this act was far too easy to put on.

"Have fun." Olivia said, waving at them as Elena walked towards the elevators outside of the restaurant with Dean's hand in her own.

* * *

Sam left the hotel when Dean said he would go get Elena from the middle of the group of women so that they could go question some magicians who were practicing for the next day. Sam went to the bar where Vance was just before he died to ask the bartender if he saw anything strange. As he was walking out of the bar, he saw a familiar brunette leaning against the bricks next to the door.

"What are you doing here, Ruby?" he sighed.

"I should be asking you the same thing." Ruby said, pushing herself up to walk to him.

"I'm working a job." Sam said.

"The whole world's about to be engulfed in hellfire, and you're in Magictown, USA." The female demon demanded, causing Sam to laugh

"You got something against magic?" he questioned.

"That would almost be funny if thirty-four seals hadn't been broken already. Thirty-four, Sam. That's over halfway. The angels are losing this war. Every day is one day closer, and if someone doesn't do something soon…" she stressed.

"And that someone is me?" Sam said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Who else would it be?" Ruby shrugged as if it as simple.

"I don't know where these seals are. I don't know squat. So why don't you tell me where you'd like me to start?" Sam said.

"Well, you can quit dicking around here, for one. Bigger fish, Sam. And if the seals are being broken, you might want to go after the one doing the breaking." she suggested.

"Lilith?" Sam questioned.

"Cut the head off the snake. You're the only one who can stop her, Sam. So step up and kill the little bitch." Ruby snapped, glaring him down.

"Oh, I'm game, believe me. It's not the psychic thing I got a problem with." Sam said, turning to walk away from her.

"Yeah, I know what you got a problem with, but tough. It's the only way." Ruby said, trotting after him.

"No." Sam said, shaking his head.

"You know, this would all be so much easier if you'd just admit to yourself that you like it. That feeling that it gives you." Ruby pushed him, smirking.

"You don't know what you're talking about." Sam growled softly, glaring at the ground as he took long strides down the sidewalk.

"Oh I don't, huh? Fine." Ruby said, stopping short.

"It's simple. Lucifer rises, the apocalypse starts. You think that you have demons on your hands now? People are gonna die, Sam. Oceans of people. So you just let me know when you're ready!" She called, turning on her heel to walk away.

* * *

The ride on the elevator was a little bit hilarious. Dean couldn't stop raking his eyes over her outfit and body and Elena was fighting the urge to laugh at his behavior. When they got to their floor, he practically flew out of the elevator, causing her to speedwalk in her incredibly tall heels as they bolted down the hallway. When they got to the room, Dean shoved the keycard into the scanner and slammed the door open when it flashed green. Her jacket and purse were ripped out of her hands and thrown on the floor. Then she was up against the wall before she could really process anything. His hands were on the wall on either side of her head and his face was inches away from hers.

"You look…" he trailed off, unable to put it into words.

"You're the one who told me to dress like a slut." Elena murmured with her eyes gazing into his as she pushed his suit jacket off of his shoulders and tossed it away.

She had no idea where her sudden confident attitude when it came to sex and anything to do with it was coming from. Before, first with Matt and then with Stefan, she wasn't a submissive, demure sex partner but she certainly wasn't this confident. She had a feeling it had something to do with her partner. Dean groaned and shook his head.

"You don't look like a slut. You look gorgeous… and sexy. And I can't help but want to press you agaisnt this wall and…" he cut off again.

"And?" she urged him to continue, her hands running down his chest and abs before hooking in his belt loops and pulling his hips closer.

He let out a soft groan and suddenly his lips crashed on hers. She pressed forward as her hands abandoned the belt loops to wrap around his shoulders. His hands went to her back, pulling her up and closer to him. When he pulled her up off the ground, her legs automatically lifted and wrapped around his waist. Dean pressed her against the wall and their lips continued to dance passionately with the others lips. Elena let out a cry when his hand slid up her thigh and underneath her dress to grip her hip over her black silky underwear.

His thumb swept just underneath the waistband of her underwear and Elena felt heat shooting throughout her entire body as her core throbbed with desire. His thumb slid out of her underwear, causing her to whine unhappily into his mouth as their tongues battled for dominance. His hand slid down in response, brushing over that sweet spot and making her cry out loudly as her head fell backwards. When he massaged it softly for a few moments, making her writhe in his arms and let out sounds he'd never heard from her mouth before, he yanked her away from the wall and collapsed onto the bed on top of her.

His hands went to her panties, not even thinking about restraint anymore as his thumbs hooked in them to yank them off of her body. The sound of a keycard entering the slot and the door being jiggled open causing them to stop. Dean groaned frustratingly as he sat up. Reality returned to both of their eyes and they sat there staring at each other for a moment as Sam finally got the door open. Dean cursed loudly and slid off of the bed, turning to glare at his brother as he adjusted himself to a more comfortable position in his suddenly very tight feeling pants. Sam walked in and saw their faces and Elena's position on the bed and knew that he'd interrupted again.

"We should… uh… keep on investigating. A few magicians are in the auditorium downstairs." He said awkwardly, looking anywhere but at them.

"Then I suppose we'd better go." Dean snapped, picking up his jacket and pulling it on.

Elena bit her lip and slid off of the bed, pulling on her jacket and grabbing her purse.

"I'll go too, I can just watch the show while you interrogate but I don't want to be stuck in here." She said, buttoning the jacket up.

* * *

When they got to the auditorium, they saw three older men sitting at two of the tables and Jeb Dexter sitting at another table with his camera team.

"It's a lame gig. I'm in a fleabag hotel doing this man-of-the-people crap, and freaking Criss Angel's in Vegas doing Cirque du Soleil! That should have been mine!" Jeb complained loudly, glaring down at the table.

Dean approached the tables with the three older men with Sam following him closely. Jeb caught sight of Elena and a slow grin spreaded across his face as he stood and turned to his camera team.

"All right, boys, get it in gear, I don't got all day." He said, winking at her as he stood..

Dean and Sam crouched behind one of the men and Elena sat behind them, pretending as though she was looking around in awe.

"You Vernon Haskell?" Dean asked.

"Who's asking?" Vernon questioned, turning back to raise an eyebrow at the boys.

"Federal agents. Ulrich and Hefield."

They pulled out their badges and showed them to the men.

"Looking into the death of Patrick Vance." Dean said.

Jeb dropped into the seat across from one of men who was at a table alone, interrupting Dean and causing them all to glare at him.

"I'm Jeb Dexter. This is Devil Twist. We're chilling at the International Magicians' Convention, which is a dope chance to tip my hat to the wicked cats who came before me. Smoking hot effect last night, Jim." Jeb said, nodding at the man.

"Jay." The older man corrected.

"Huh?" Jeb asked, looking confused.

"My name is Jay." He said.

"Yeah, whatever. We can loop it later." Jeb waved off.

"What a douchebag." Vernon scoffed

"Couldn't agree more." Dean nodded in agreement, pulling out the tarot card that they'd found in Vance's hotel room.

"Is, uh… this familiar to you?" he asked, showing it to the older man.

"Should it be?" Vernon asked, turning it over several times before handing it back to Dean.

"Well, I heard that you used tarot cards in your act." Sam threw in.

"My act?" Vernon laughed, shaking his head. "That was a long time ago. I haven't touched a deck in years, you know..." he held up a shaking hand.

"Do you know someone that might use them now?" Sam asked.

"Well, there was a guy down on Bleeker Street." Vernon said, looking at his friend.

"Oh, yeah. He, he peddles that kind of specialty stuff. The name's Charlie, by the way." the other man said,

"Did he have a problem with Vance?" Dean asked the two men.

"Matter of fact, Vance crossed him about a year ago. Probably cost him fifty grand in royalties." Vernon said.

Charlie nodded in agreement.

"You know the exact address?" Dean questioned.

"426 Bleeker." Vernon said.

"Ask for Chief." Charlie threw in.

"Chief. Thank you." Dean said, standing up and looking at Sam first, then Elena.

* * *

Dean and Elena left Sam behind at the hotel to research the tarot card. Their hands were loosely entangled as they walked down Bleeker St.

"We're getting back at Sammy now, right?" he asked as they came to a stop at a neon sign that read 426.

"We can just kick him out later." Elena promised as he leaned forward to knock on the door. The chain link door swung open, revealing a strange looking young man who eyed them both strangely.

"We're, uh, here to see Chief." Dean said, peeking behind him.

The man raised his eyebrows before stepping aside to allow them in. They followed him downstairs to a dark room.

"Stay here. Don't touch anything." He instructed them before leaving.

Elena and Dean stared around the strange room. She noticed the graffiti and walked away from Dean to study it as the thud of a loud bass filtered through the walls. The door swung open and they both turned to face it though Elena was hidden by the shadows. A large man walked in wearing all leather and carrying a flogger. Her eyes widened and her hands flew up to clap over her mouth. He slapped the flogger in his hand a few times.

"You are really gonna get it tonight, big boy." The man, most likely Chief, said.

It suddenly dawned on Elena what was happening and she bit her lip painfully to hold back her laughter.

"There's been a misunderstanding. I, uh, think I've been had." Dean said, holding his hand up in surrender as he looked around for Elena.

"Oh, you ain't been had till you been had by the Chief." The man promised.

Elena bit down harder, drawing blood as Dean frowned at the man, not amused by the situation.

"Oh, and before we get started, what's your safeword?" Chief asked, pausing the act for a moment to stare at Dean seriously.

Elena couldn't help it anymore. Her laughter bubbled out of her throat and the large man looked around with confused eyes.

"Well… I haven't done a couple in a while." Chief said, eyeing Elena with interest.

Dean darted forward and grabbed Elena's hand, dragging her past the large S&M obsessed man and up the stairs. Her entire body was shaking with laughter by the time they made it outside. The pealing giggles filled the night air as they hurried away from the horrible place.

"That was one of the most terrifying things I've ever had to face." Dean said, not looking back at the building.

"That… was… hilarious!" Elena choked out, her face turning red with the force of her laughter.

Dean gave her a sideways glare but couldn't help but smile at the pure joy in her eyes and the bright smile on her face.

When they got back to the hotel, Sam was standing outside with his hands in his pockets.

"Find anything interesting?" Dean asked as they walked up.

"What? Uh, no. You?" Sam replied, looking at them.

"Nothing I want to talk about, or think about, ever again." Dean said, shuddering as Elena giggled again and launched into everything that happened at 426 Bleeker St.

* * *

The next day, after nothing happened at the performances that night, they busied themselves with interviewing random people at the convention. Once all of the magicians except for the three old men and Jeb Dexter were interviewed, they regrouped in the hotel room at about three in the afternoon.

"We need to interview the douchebag. For all we know, it's that eyeliner'd freak doing all this." Dean said, sounding annoyed by the mere mention of the guy.

"Well, I saw him in the bar when we walked in a few minutes ago. I think we all know that he won't respond to either of you." Elena said.

"What does that mean?" Dean asked, narrowing his eyes.

"It means, my feminineness is being put to use." Elena said, grinning at him as she stood and grabbed her bag.

"You're going to flirt a confession out of the guy?" Dean scoffed.

"It's better and much less messy than beating it out of him." she replied, kissing his forehead before walking into the bathroom.

She emerged thirty minutes later wearing the black coat again. This time her shoes were a bright magenta color. Her hair was curled again but pulled halfway out of her face this time.

"Meet me in the bar in thirty minutes. I'll have something by then." She said confidently, turning to walk out of the room.

* * *

Dean barely gave Elena twenty minutes before he dragged Sam downstairs to see what was going on. When they saw the scene before them, Dean's face turned red and his hands curled into fists. Elena was sitting very close to Jeb and he was showing her a card trick. Elena let out a pealing laugh as the magician said something with a smirk. Dean barrelled for the table as Sam followed him to make sure his brother didn't do anything rash like kill Jeb Dexter. When they got to the table, Elena and Jeb looked up at them.

"Oh, these are my bosses, the ones I told you about. They are going to do a brother act." Elena said, nodding as she grinned up at them.

"Nice to meet you." Jeb said, his attention turning back to Elena.

"I'm going to go get a drink. You three should bond. I'm sure you have plenty to talk about, being magicians and all." Elena said with sparkling eyes as she stood.

Dean finally noticed her dress and saw that it was black again with flowing ¾ sleeves that had a long slit in the top of them. The skirt was loose and fell halfway down her thighs with a sparkling belt around her waist. As she walked over to the bar, Jeb's eyes followed her closely.

"I hope you two brothers don't mind, but I am so going to fuck your assistant." Jeb said, a sly grin forming on his face.

Both of their eyes widened and fury took over their faces, proving that Sam and Dean did, in fact, mind. Dean stood and grabbed the front of Jeb's shirt before slamming his fist into his face.

"I do mind." He spat as the magician fell to the floor.

"Shit, man!" Jeb cursed, pushing himself up to his knees.

Elena hurried back over with wide eyes without ordering a drink.

"What happened?" she demanded, looking down at the floor where Jeb was clutching his bleeding nose and up at Sam and Dean.

"The son of a bitch deserved it." Dean growled, glaring down at the puny man.

"He did." Sam agreed.

"Sorry, dude. I didn't know the bitch was yours." Jeb spat before turning to stomp off.

Elena stopped Dean from following him with her hands on his arms, forcing him to face her.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"He said something he shouldn't have said about you. It pissed me off." Dean said, breathing heavily.

She stared up at him for a moment before biting her lip.

"Upstairs, now." She whispered.

Dean got her meaning and his hand grabbed hers to drag her away immediately. She stopped short, turning to face Sam.

"I swear to God, I don't care if the hotel is on fire. That room is off limits." She said threateningly, pointing at him.

Sam nodded with wide eyes. They both grinned triumphantly before Dean succeeded in dragging her to the elevator. They crashed through the door once again and this time, Dean threw Elena on the bed immediately.

"How come I've never seen any of these dresses on you?" he questioned, looking down at her splayed across the bed with her hair coming out of the half up style and her dress ridden up a little bit to show her smooth thighs.

"You've never asked." She said, pulling him down to kiss her.

**WARNING: LEMONY**

His hands didn't waste any time before pushing her dress up to reveal dark blue silky panties similar to the black ones she was wearing the day before. To see them instead of simply feeling them made him a thousand times harder, which he thought was impossible. When he reached down and stroked the outside, pushing Elena's legs apart in the process, he could feel the dampness through them. She moaned and pulled his lips down to hers again, wrapping her legs around his hips and writhing beneath him as he stroked her womanhood through her panties.

"Please!" she whined against his lips.

He grinned and slowly pushed her panties aside. When his finger came in contact with her velvety folds, she arched her back and threw her head back, an erotic cry escaping her from her mouth. He experimentally stroked the entire length very slowly and gently. Elena could hardly keep her body from bucking underneath him as curses and pleas mixed together as they flew out of her mouth. His finger found her spot easily and he circled around it a few times, making her beg with him. When he finally began massaging it with the very tip of his finger, she let out a loud mewl, her hips bucking underneath his body.

After he stroked her sweet spot a few times, his middle finger slid down her length and found her opening. He circled it slowly a few times before slowly entering the digit. Elena let out a scream of pleasure as his finger pushed fully inside of her. He held it there for a moment, marveling at the look of pure ecstacy on her face. There was an urge in his mind to look down at what he was doing but he couldn't look away from her face, too transfixed by the beauty of it. After sliding his finger in and out a few times, he experimentally added a second one.

He was rewarded by yet another cry of utter pleasure escaping from her mouth. When his thumb began massaging her bundle of nerves in sync with his fingers moving in and out of her, her body began trembling uncontrollably underneath him. She was close. He knew it and she knew it. Elena could hardly think about anything other than his fingers and how they made her feel. A knot began tightening in her stomach and she knew that she was building towards her climax. When her moans and cries became louder and more intense, he bent down and captured her lips in his.

She writhed underneath him as her walls began clamping down on his fingers. Her loud scream of completion was drowned out by his lips. Her nails dug into his arms through his suit jacket as he brought her to completion. When he felt her relax and her body slumped to the bed, he pulled away to see her looking dazedly satisfied. A grin formed on his face as he withdrew his fingers and pulled her underwear back into place. When her eyes finally opened to reveal a sparkle in them and her smile fell into a lazy grin, he grinned back even bigger.

"You look awfully impressed with yourself." She commented, her voice a little hoarse with the screaming she'd just done.

"Oh, I am." He said cockily.

She laughed softly and pulled him down to kiss her. Dena was surprised when she flipped them over to where she was straddling him.

"My turn." She said with a wink, pulling him up to push his jacket off.

"Elena, you don't have to do anything." He said, attempting to stop her as she began to unbutton his shirt.

"I know." She said, grinning wryly as she pushed his hands away and continued unbuttoning.

When his shirt was unbuttoned, she pulled it off and then immediately discarded his white undershirt as well. She pushed him back and her fingers deftly removed his belt. Before she unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, her fingers softly stroked over the outline of his erection through his pants. Dean groaned and his hips bucked up unwillingly. Elena grinned and finally unbuttoned his pants before slipping them off so that he was left in his boxers. Instead of removing those as well, Elena's hand simply delved into the waistband and immediately gripped his hard manhood.

Dean let out a sharp moan and threw his head back just as Elena had earlier. She slowly moved her hand up and down his length, biting her lip as heat shot through her once again at the feeling of his impressive manhood in her hand. When her thumb brushed over the tip, he let out a groan and his hips bucked once again. Elena immediately fell into a pattern, pumping him, alternating between slow and fast, while brushing her thumb over his tip every time she reached the top. Dean shook underneath her, his mouth forming a perfect 'o' as extremely attractive noises and curses slid out of his mouth every once in a while. His eyes were squeezed shut.

She felt his erection twitching in her hand after a few minutes and knew that he was close. She bent down and nipped at his throat and jaw before moving her lips to his ear.

"Come for me, Dean." She whispered dirtily, her soft voice forming the words so perfectly that the mere sound of it sent his body into spasms as his hot seed spilled onto her hand and his boxers.

Elena continued to pump him as he reached completion, moaning her name along with curse words and nonsense words. When he finished, she pulled away to stare down at him as his eyes opened.

**LEMONY PART OVER**

"You should be impressed with yourself too." He murmured, reaching up stroke her cheek as she smiled down at him.

"What a pair we make, all egotistical like." she sighed.

"Mmm… I don't mind." He shrugged, slightly breathless from their previous activities.

"Come on, let's go clean up." He said as he withdrew her hand from his pants and pulled her into the bathroom.

"Are you ever going to admit that you were jealous?" Elena asked as she trotted after him.

Dean shook his head even though both of them knew very well that he was, in fact, jealous.

"Hmm… well even if you don't want to admit it, I will tell that your jealousy was so… fucking… hot. That's why I couldn't keep my hands off of you." Elena said as she washed her hands and he turned to walk out of the bathroom to fetch a new pair of boxers.

He turned back with a sly grin and walked to her, pulling her to him and pressing a passionate kiss to her lips.

"I wasn't jealous. I was so damn aroused because I knew that Jeb Dexter asshole could never have you because you are all mine." He growled possessively.

"I like the sound of that." she said with a wink as he turned to walk out again.

"Good!" Dean called as he rifled through his bag for clothes.

* * *

After rejoining Sam, satisfied grins on both of their faces that Sam didn't want to know anything about, they walked into the auditorium. It was slowly filling up with people for Jay's show. They immediately spotted Vernon and Charlie standing at the back murmuring quietly.

"The Chief, huh?" Dean questioned, glaring at them as they walked up.

"What's the matter? Chief not your type?" Charlie asked, smirking at him.

"You know, I could have you both arrested for obstruction of justice." Dean reminded them, smirking back at the old men.

"How? You're no Fed." Vernon scoffed

"We con people for a living, son. Takes more than a fake badge to get past us." Charlie informed them.

Dean and Sam exchanged glances as Elena rolled her eyes. They both laughed awkwardly and faced the men again.

"You got us. Yeah, we… we are actually… aspiring magicians." Dean nodded.

"Yeah, we… we came to the convention 'cause we thought we could learn something." Sam explained, sounding unsure of his own story.

"We already have an assistant and everything. This is our assistant." Dean said, gesturing back to Elena, who smiled at the gentlemen

"I didn't even know they were impersonating FBI agents. These boys just came to get some ideas for their new show." Elena said, keeping her charming smile on her face.

"Ooh, what kind of show?" Vernon asked.

"Well, it's… it's a…" Dean stammered.

"It's a brother act." Elena threw out.

"Yeah. Yeah, you know, with the rings and doves and...rings." Dean nodded, making both her and Sam roll their eyes.

"You want to learn something? Stick around." Charlie said, nodding to the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what you're about to witness is a feat so daring, So dangerous, even the great Houdini dared not attempt it. I give to you... the executioner!" Jay announced, gesturing widely as a noose dropped from the ceiling.

"Now, sir, as you can see, this jacket is the real deal." Jay said as a man strapped him in with the noose tied around his neck.

"Thank you, sir. You may take your seat. Now, I will have one minute… sixty seconds… to escape certain death. Let's see if I can do it." Jay said as the curtains were pulled in front of him.

His silhouette was the only thing that was seen struggling to get out of the straightjacket.

"I don't think he's gonna make it." Dean said, alarmed as the clock ticked down.

Elena winced and grasped Dean's arm as the panic shot through her. The buzzer sounded and they all watched as Jay's body dropped through the small scaffold, the entire audience gasping. The assistant immediately ran out and yanked the curtains aside. Jay stood there looking unharmed with the straitjacket in his hands and a smile on his face.

"Oh! That was amazing! That was freakin' amazing!" Dean said, clapping along with the audience.

"That was...not humanly possible." Sam said, echoing Elena's thoughts.

* * *

"Looks like this guy Jay was a pretty big deal in the '70s." Sam said, looking at an article on the computer

"Which in magician land means what, exactly?" Dean asked as he reclined on the bed with Elena leaning into him.

Her eyes were closed and she was breathing softly. After the last few days, and especially the amorous events of that day, she was pretty tired and needed a quick nap.

"Big enough to play radio city music hall." Sam replied.

"What got him stuck in their 'where are they now' file?" the older brother asked as he stroked Elena's hair gently.

"He got old."

"Okay, so maybe incredible Jay is using real magic to stage a comeback." Dean suggested.

"It's possible. Some kind of spell that works a death transference." Sam nodded, typing quickly on the computer.

"How does the tarot card mix into it?" Dean questioned.

"I don't know." He shrugged.

"Man...hope I die before I get old. Whole thing seems brutal, don't it?" Dean shook his head with a sigh.

"You think we will?" Sam asked, looking up from his computer suddenly.

"What?" Dean asked, looking away from Elena's face and over at him.

"Die before we get old." Sam asked.

As if their topic of conversation alerted her, Elena drifted out of sleep and heard them talking.

"Haven't we both already?" Dean replied.

"You know what I mean, Dean. I mean, do you think we'll still be chasing demons when we're 60?"

"No, I think we'll be dead...for good. What? You want to end up like… like Travis? Huh? Or Gordon, maybe?" Dean scoffed.

"There's Bobby." Sam reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, there's a poster child for growing old gracefully." The older brother said, shaking his head.

"Maybe we'll be different, Dean." Sam said softly.

"What kind of Kool-Aid you drinking, man? Sammy, it ends bloody or sad. That's just the life." he said, making Elena sad with his talk.

She'd never heard them talking like this and now she was afraid that they always thought like this.

"What if we could win?" Sam asked.

"Win?" Dean questioned, confused at his statement.

"If there was a way we could just...put an end to all of it."

"Is there something going on you're not telling me?" Dean asked, suspicious all of the sudden.

"No." Sam said dismissively.

"Sammy…" Dean began.

"No. Look, I'm just saying...I just wish there was a way we could...go after the source. That's all. Cut the head off the snake." Sam sighed.

"Well, the problem with the snake is that it has a thousand heads. Evil bitches just keep piling out of the Volkswagen." Dean reminded him.

"Yeah. Guess you're right." Sam nodded, looking back at his computer.

"Why don't you go see if you can track down Jay? I'll see what I can dig up on this tarot card." Dean said, holding up the thing that was in his other hand.

Elena chose that moment to jerk 'awake' and look up at Dean.

"Hi." She said, smiling softly as she hid her inner turmoil that came from their conversation.

* * *

Elena wound up remaining in the room this time as they went out to investigate more. She simply sat there barely watching television as their conversation went through her head for the thousandth time. She agreed with Dean that Sam sounded as though something was going on that he wasn't telling them. And she couldn't help but dread the fact that she felt that it was connected to his psychic powers and Ruby.

"Hey." Sam said as him and Dean came walking in, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Maid found Jeb hanging from the ceiling fan. Police think it was a suicide." Dean

He pulled out another tarot card, this time of a hanged man.

"I beg to differ. Pulled a little sleight of hand myself." Dean said proudly, winking her and causing her to smile.

"On Dexter's body?" she asked.

"Yeah, so I'm thinking if this spell is a death transference, then these cards work like black magic targets." Dean nodded

"Any connection between the victims?" Elena asked.

"Jeb was a total douche bag to Jay yesterday." He said.

"What about the first vic? Uh, Vance?" Sam questioned.

"Asked around. Apparently, Vance was heckling Jay at the bar the day he was killed." Dean confirmed, sitting on the bed and pulling off his jacket.

"Okay, so Jay sneaks a card into Vance's pocket, does the table of death..." Sam trailed off.

"… and Vance takes 10 swords to the chest." Dean said.

"Then Jay slips a noose and Jeb doesn't. Hell of a trick." Sam sighed, collapsing into a chair.

"Yeah, I think it's time we had a little chat with Jay. Any luck tailing him?" Dean asked.

"He slipped me." Sam said, looking embarrassed.

"He's a sixty-year-old." Dean scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"He's a magician." Sam reminded him defensively.

* * *

They all went down to the bar to see if they could catch sight of Jay. Elena ordered a glass of wine again. When Jay walked through the door and headed for the elevators.

"We got him. You stay here and keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Dean said, jumping up.

Elena cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Please?" he asked before pressing a soft kiss to her lips and smiling as he pulled away.

"Better." She nodded, smiling back before they ran off.

She kept her attention around her to see if anything happened but after thirty minutes nothing did. Finally Dean and Sam came running out of the elevator and looked around the lobby wildly.

Jay came running up behind them as two policemen walked into the lobby.

"Oh shit." Elena muttered as the magician's attention focused on the cops.

"That's them! Those are the two nut jobs that just broke into my room!" Jay shouted, pointing at Sam and Dean.

* * *

Elena sighed as she walked out of the hotel room. Sam and Dean were at the police station. They urged her to remain at the hotel and figure out a way to get Jay to believe them so that he would drop the charges and they could finish the case. She was currently in the auditorium. This time she was wearing a black maxi-dress with a slit that came up to mid-thigh and a draped v-neckline. She was wearing high-heeled sandals and a dark blue draping open-front sweater over her dress. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun to keep it out of the way. Jay was about to do another show and she was chewing on her lip nervously. Jay was talking to Charlie just aside from the stage with a worried expression on his face.

Finally, Jay climbed onto the table and did his own introduction. There was a slight tremor in his voice and he seemed genuinly terrified to do his own trick. Finally he laid down on the 'table of death' with the swords once more. Charlie walked forward to light the rope holding the plate of swords up before going backstage. The curtain closed around him and the swords dropped after a few moments, causing Elena to jump along with the rest of the audience. Jay ripped the curtain aside with a nervous smile a second later.

"Oh my god somebody gonna call 911." A woman screamed from backstage.

Elena launched forward and to the stage, climbing up on it without caring what was going on. Jay reached the backstage area at the same time she did. Charlie was lying on the ground with blood seeping through his clothing and his eyes were wide open and surprised. Jay let out a choking noise and stumbled backwards. She turned to steady him, looking into his eyes.

"You need to release my friends, they can help stop this. You need help." She said, squeezing his upper arms tightly.

Jay stared at her for a moment before nodding with panicked eyes.

* * *

Elena waited impatiently in the lobby with Jay for Dean and Sam to show up. When they walked through the doors, she sighed with relief and started forward to hug them both.

"Jay. Thanks for dropping the charges." Sam sighed, holding his hand out to shake Jay's

"You mind telling us why you did it?" Dean asked as they didn't get any background on anything.

"We have to talk." Jay said, looking at Elena for help.

She nodded, reassuring him that he was doing the right thing.

"I was just a kid when we first met. All I knew was how to cheat at cards. Charlie got me out of more scrapes than I can count. Hell, I would have been dead by the age of 20 if it hadn't been for him. He was more than my friend. He was my brother." Jay said as they sat at a table in the bar.

He was sipping on a small glass of bourbon as he spoke.

"I'm sorry, Jay." Sam said solemnly, his hands folded on the table.

"Look, I should have listened to you guys when you told me that my show was killing people." The magicians said, shaking his head.

"Well, you weren't the one pulling the trigger." Dean assured him.

"Yeah, but someone did, and I want to find out who did this to Charlie, so I'll do whatever you guys say. Just tell me what to do." Jay pleaded.

"Jay, whoever's doing this... they like you. They're probably close to you. Did Charlie and Vernon get along?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"No. No, it's not Vernon." He said, shaking his head.

"Jay, he's the only one that makes sense." Elena said softly, reaching out to take the poor man's hand.

"Charlie and Vernon were your family, Jay." Sam said.

"And now Charlie's gone." Dean finished.

"Yeah, but... they butted heads sometimes, but Vernon could never do something like this." Jay said, looking at them with wide eyes as if begging with them to agree with him.

"See, the thing about real magic is it's a whole lot like crack. People do surprising things once they get a taste of it." Dean explained.

"You better be damn sure about this. Vernon's all I got left." Jay warned them.

* * *

It was agreed that Elena would stay with Jay while Dean and Sam went upstairs to check Vernon's room when they drew him out. They were on the stage of the auditorium where the table of death was still set up.

"Just talked to the head of the convention. Headliner gig is yours." Vernon said, proudly.

He looked at Elena with a confused face as Jay turned around to look at him.

"What? You don't want it?" Vernon

"A day ago, if you told me I'd be standing on this stage... no, I can't do it, Vernon." Jay said, shaking his head.

"What are you talking about?" Vernon asked, confused at Jay's refusal.

"Charlie's gone." He said sadly, looking up at Vernon with devastated eyes.

"Charlie would have wanted you to go on. This is your shot. It's our shot." Vernon urged him.

Elena bit her lip to keep her mouth closed as she watched the two interacting.

"Really? This is what Charlie would have wanted? Charlie's dead." Jay snapped, angry all of the sudden.

"Hey, he was my friend, too, you know." Vernon reminded him defensively.

"It's a hell of a way to treat a friend." Jay scoffed.

"Again, what are you talking about?" the other man asked, sounding alarmed and confused.

Elena squinted at him, wondering if he was still putting on an act or if they were completely wrong.

"You killed him, didn't you? And for what? So that I… so that we could be back on top?" Jay demanded.

"That's insane. No, you're scaring me." Vernon said with a chuckle before becoming serious again.

"First it was Vance, then it was Jeb. Even if you thought you were doing it for me, how in God's name could you kill Charlie?" Jay demanded.

"Oh, you are crazy." Vernon said, shaking his head.

"You used me, and you used my act to do this to him. If you think…" Jay was cut off by someone else walking on the stage.

"I wouldn't be so hard on him, Jay. He didn't do it." the man said, shuffling a deck of tarot cards in his hands.

"Sweet mary and joseph." Vernon breathed, staring at the man as if he'd seen a ghost.

Elena wasn't sure of what to do without knowing who the hell this man was.

"Charlie." Jay said, his eyes as wide as saucers.

She stared between all of the men, wondering what was going on and really wishing that she knew what to do in this situation.

"It's really me, Jay." The younger version of Charlie assured him.

"How the hell..." Vernon trailed off.

"God, you forget what it feels like to be young. It's amazing." Charlie said, looking down at his hands and back up at his two old friends.

"How old are you?" Jay demanded, looking panicked.

"Oh, it depends on what you mean by old. Right now, technically, about 28, but I've been around a lot longer than that." the man shrugged.

His eyes flashed to Elena and she glared back at him, wishing that Dean and Sam would come to the auditorium already.

"How long?" Jay questioned, bringing Charlie's attention back to him.

"Long enough to have shilled for Barnum. And he gave me something." Charlie explained.

"What's that?" Jay asked.

"The grimoire… a book of real magic. At first, I thought it was a scam, but then I tried one of the spells, and it worked. In fact, they all worked. So when I got to the end and there was one for immortality..." the young/old man trailed off.

"My god, Charlie." Vernon said with a shocked tone.

"And my show, the things that I can do." Jay asked.

"Different spell. But it gives you a little taste of what's possible." Charlie said, holding up the deck of tarot cards.

Vernon reached out to take them but Charlie pulled them away.

"Oh, no, I wouldn't touch those, Vernon. They're -They're still radioactive." He warned Vernon.

"You killed Vance and Jeb Dexter." Jay accused Charlie.

"What, you think this is a parlor game? You were being humiliated by those punks. A washed-up old man who couldn't even defend himself." Charlie said, getting defensive and a little angry.

Elena was quickly trying to figure out a way to attack Charlie without him tarot carding her.

"You used me to do these terrible things." Jay said, disgusted.

"I used them to give you a gift. And you wanted it, Jay. I saw it in your eyes." Charlie said, smiling at the thought.

"No, I never wanted this." Jay said, shaking his head.

"You were ready to kill yourself. I saved your life." Charlie reminded the old man, making both Elena and Vernon look at him with surprise.

"Is that right, Jay?" Vernon asked.

"I was there for you, like I've always been. Like I'll always be. Come with me, both of you. You think the first time around was good? The second time's even better. All the know how, none of the aches and pain." Charlie offered and Elena bit her lip, still trying to come up with a plan.

"No, I won't do this. I won't."

"I've never made this offer before. But, then again, I've never had friends like the two of you before. Let me do this for you." Charlie said pleadingly.

"And who else has to die so that we can live forever? What's the price tag on immortality? This isn't right, Charlie, what you're doing. You know that. Somewhere, you know that." Jay said desperately.

"I know I don't want to come back alone, to start all over, alone." Charlie shrugged.

"Jay... we can be young again." Vernon breathed, sounding awed by the thought.

Elena began inching towards the group, cursing the fact that she was wearing heels.

"The three of us together… vital and alive...forever." Charlie offered.

"Not so fast! I ain't Guttenberg, and this ain't Cocoon. Immortality. That's a neat trick." Dean said as him and Sam bursted into the auditorium.

Elena sighed with relief.

"It's not a trick. It's magic." Charlie said without missing a beat, turning to face them.

A noose appears behind Dean, drops around his neck and lifts him. Elena cried out in panic as Sam pulled out his gun and shot Charlie. Charlie easily caught the bullet in his teeth, causing all of them to stare at him with shock.

"Hey, bullet catch… been working on that." Charlie said with a wink at his friends before he disappeared and reappeared by the sword table.

"Get him!" Dean growled as he struggled with the rope.

"Let him go… now!" Sam demanded, pointing the gun at Charlie as he ran up onto the stage.

"Just leave me and my friends alone. All right, I will give it up… the spells, the hexes. This is the last time. I promise." Charlie said, holding his hands up in surrender.

He darted forward and pushed Sam back onto the sword table, where manacles snapped into place and the swords hovered over him threateningly. Elena darted forward and wrapped her hands around Charlie from behind.

"Here's a hint, magician. Don't turn your back on the strongest one." She whispered, yanking him away from Sam and turning him around to wrap her hand around his throat.

He grabbed her hand and attempted to move it but she reached down and ripped it off, throwing it away effortlessly.

"The assistant turns out to be the star of the show?" he gasped as her hand squeezed him tighter.

"I'm not just a woman in a dress who is supposed to look pretty." Elena shot back.

She looked up at Dean who was turning purple as he struggled with the rope.

"Let him down, now." She demanded, turning back to look at Charlie.

"Here's a hint, darling. If you want to defeat the big bad magician, don't get distracted by your boy toy." Charlie said before a noose dropped and wrapped around her neck as well.

Before it could lift her into the air, a bloodstain appeared on Charlie's stomach. He turned to see Jay standing there with a dagger buried in his stomach. He pulled it out before revealing the tarot cards in his pocket. Charlie reached to his own jacket and pulled out a tarot card that had been placed in it.

"Jay...You picked these strangers over me?" Charlie asked, sounding shocked as he collapsed onto the floor.

The manacles released Sam and the nooses released both Elena and Dean. They ran to Dean and supported him as he gulped in air greedily.

"You okay?" Sam asked, as Elena pressed her hand to his neck where the rope burns were prominent.

She concentrated and healed him almost immediatley.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm all right." Dean said a little hoarsely, clutching at Elena's hand.

* * *

"Hey, Jay. We wanted to thank you for what you did yesterday." Dean said as they sat in the bar a the next day.

"I killed my best friend yesterday, and you want to thank me?" Jay said miserably, nursing his fourth drink.

"Where's Vernon?" Sam asked, looking around.

"Oh, he's gone. He said he didn't want to speak to me again after what I did to Charlie." Jay said, staring down at the bar.

"Listen, Jay...you know Charlie was never gonna give up what he was doing. Ever. You did the right thing." Dean assured him.

"Are you sure about that? You know, Charlie was like my brother. And now he's dead... because I did the right thing. He offered me a gift, and I just threw it back in his face. So now I have to spend the rest of my life old and alone. What's so right about that?" Jay asked, looking up at them.

"Jay... your cards." The bartender said, handing him a regular deck of cards.

"Throw them away." Jay dismissively before turning to walk away.

"Well, I don't know about you, but...I could go for a beer." Dean said, turning to Elena and Sam.

"I'm gonna take a walk." Sam said, suddenly sounding as miserable as Jay before he turned to walk out of the hotel.

"I'm getting worried. There's something going on with him, right?" Dean asked for confirmation.

"Whatever it is, we'll figure it out and we'll help him, okay?" Elena said, pulling him in for a light kiss.

"You know, the case is over… and Sammy's going for a walk." Dean said, looking up at Elena with suggestive eyes.

"Mmm… and we do have an hour before we have to check out." Elena giggled, pulling him backwards towards the elevator.

* * *

Sam sighed as he opened the door to Ruby's car and climbed in. When he shut the door, he stared straight ahead with a serious expression.

"Okay. I'm in." he said emotionlessly.

"What changed your mind?" Ruby questioned.

"I don't want to be doing this when I'm an old man." Sam said.

* * *

Elena laughed loudly as Dean attempted to dive under the sheets once more to press kisses all over her bare stomach.

"Stop it tickles!" she cried, attempting to push him away.

They had just finished temporarily satsifying their seemingly unsatiable needs and were now acting uncontrollably silly.

"Oh you're ticklish now, huh?" Dean said, his voice muffled by the sheet.

"Dean!" she shrieked as his fingers attacked her sides and she squirmed underneath him.

They weren't quite naked, they hadn't gotten that far yet though both were sorely tempted. They were both in their undergarments. Dean finally surfaced and grinned at her as he pulled her into his chest.

"So… you got anymore dresses I need to see?" Dean asked.

"Only if you admit you get jealous." Elena shot back with a raised eyebrow.

Dean stared at her for a moment before shaking his head and pulling her into a deep kiss. Both oblivious, for the moment, to what was happening outside of the walls of that hotel room, they were both very happy. And they were certain that, no matter what happened from then on, they were there for each other.

* * *

**Author's Note: As much as I realized it sounds like it, that is NOT the end of the story.**

**A few things: **

**1. I hope the lemons weren't too graphic. I try to write them as hot and sexy but with some tastefulness as well.**

**2. Next chapter, we return to one of Sam and Dean's many old high schools and Elena learns more about what it was like for them to grow up with a hunter as a dad.**

**3. REVIEW PLEASE!**

**4. All of Elena's outfits are on my profile.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to RHatch89, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, LineChokor, Dark Alana, RachRadsAlot, Meowgli, Thera-Rocklynn, Nicole0203, slayerdiaries, Hollywood17, Dreaming while awake, and chiwi for reviewing and to everyone else who reads! Love you all!**

* * *

Elena hummed to herself as she danced around the hotel room packing her belongings. Sam left to get snacks for the roadtrip to the next hunt and Dean sat in a chair watching her as she threw everything in her two bags.

"Where are we going next?" she asked when everything was packed and by the door.

She walked over to Dean and moved to stand behind him, wrapping her arms around him and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Indiana." He said, sounding less than thrilled about it.

"What's wrong with Indiana?" she asked, confused about his unhappiness.

"Nothing. We're just… well we're going to a school we've were enrolled in before when we were kids and Dad was hunting." Dean said, looking down at his hands.

Elena didn't say anything. It was very rare that she ever heard either of the boys mention their father.

"Well… are you going to be all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. None of that emotional crap." Dean said, shaking his head as he moved to stand up.

Elena sighed and reached out, turning him around to look at her.

"You're allowed to experience emotional crap, you know that, right?" she questioned.

He shrugged and looked at a spot on the wall behind her. She reached up and put either of her hands on his cheeks, forcing him to look at her.

"I'll be here for you, no matter what emotional crap you're going to try to ignore." She said softly, standing up on her tiptoes to kiss him softly.

Her phone rang and she moved away from Dean to answer it. It was Sam telling them that it was time to go. She laced her fingers with Dean's as they walked out of the hotel room.

"If all else fails, we can sneak behind the bleachers." She said with a grin as they climbed into the elevator.

"I'll hold you to that." he promised her.

* * *

When they arrived in the small town in Indiana, they headed straight for the police station to learn what was going on. Elena was thankful that she did, in fact, bring business-looking clothing on the trip as they quickly dressed in a gas station a few blocks away from the police station. The cashier gave them all strange looks when they walked into the bathrooms wearing casual, dingy clothing and came out looking like they belonged on Wall Street. When they walked into the police station, Sam and Dean flashed their badged and immediately received an official report on what happened at Truman High School.

"The girl, April Williams, attacked another girl, Taylor Stiles, in the bathroom of the high school. She held her head in the toilet until she drowned. Tells the police that she was possessed." Dean recited as they walked towards the Impala.

"Sounds to me like a pretty violent event." Sam said.

"We should probably talk to April Williams, see what happened from her point of view." Elena suggested.

"Good idea. She's at a psychiatric hospital about ten minutes from here." Dean said as they climbed in the car.

When they pulled up, Sam and Dean both looked back at Elena.

"What?" she questioned.

"It was your idea to come talk to her. So… go talk." Dean said, gesturing to the building.

She stared at both of them with a furrowed brow and a frown.

"Elena, this girl is sixteen and most likely freaked out and emotional and possibly a psycho killer. You can probably speak to her better than either of us can." Sam said.

She sighed and moved to climb out of the car, wondering how she was going to get in to see April Williams.

"Hey, Bobby had this made a long time ago in case it ever became necessary. It'll probably work great in this situation." Dean said, handing her an ID.

Elena read over it with a shocked look.

"You are just ready for everything." She said, reading the name.

Charlotte Whittaker, Grief Counselor.

"Yep!" Dean agreed, nodding back at her.

"If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, I've been murdered by the possibly psycho, freaked out, emotional, sixteen year old killer." Elena sighed sarcastically, climbing out of the backseat and adjusting her shirt and pants before walking into the psychiatric center, hoping that she could pass of as a grief counselor instead of the eighteen-year-old that she was.

"Hello." The receptionist said brightly, grinning up at Elena.

"Hi, I'm Charlotte Whittaker. I'm a grief counselor and I'm here to speak to April Williams." She said, sliding the ID across the desk to the woman.

Her cheery smile faltered and she reached towards the phone.

"Dr. Fischer, can you come to the reception area please?" the receptionist asked, her cheery voice a bit forced.

"If you wait a moment, the doctor will be here." She said, pointing to the chairs behind Elena as she handed her the ID back.

"Thank you." Elena nodded, simply moving to stand aside.

Moments later, a man in his fifties in a pair of dark grey slacks and a white button down shirt, tie, and a white lab coat walked in.

"Can I help you?" he asked, catching sight of Elena and assuming that she was why he was called up.

"Yes, I'm Charlotte Whittaker. I'm a grief counselor and I'm here to see April Williams." She said, handing him her ID.

"Why do you need to speak to her?" he asked as he perused her identification card.

"I'm doing the grief counseling at the high school and I normally like to talk to everyone involved the traumatic event. That includes Miss Williams herself. It will only take me a few minutes. I wish to better equip myself to deal with the students who might be confused or depressed at what happened to Taylor Stiles." Elena said the lie so easily as if it came naturally to her.

It was most likely the influence of this life on her mind. Quick thinking was practically a must have. The doctor looked her over before smiling and handing back her ID.

"Miss Williams is in the recreation room. Right this way." he gestured for Elena to follow him.

When they got there, Elena noticed that the young woman was the only one there, sitting in the corner at a table looking miserable.

"If you don't mind, Dr. Fischer, I can introduce myself." Elena said, easing past him and walking to the table.

"April?" she said, looking down at the young woman.

"Who are you?" she asked in a whisper, looking scared.

"My name is Charlotte Whittaker. I'm just here to talk to you." she said, sliding into a chair across from her.

"I've talked to a lot of people." April sighed, looking down at her hands.

"I know and I know that it must be very overwhelming for you." she said softly, pulling a notebook out of her purse.

"I'm not talking about it anymore. I already told the cops and the doctors. No one believes me. They think I'm crazy." The young woman said, shaking her head.

"Well, I'm a little bit more open-minded than most. April, why did you tell the police you were possessed?" Elena asked.

"It doesn't matter." April shrugged.

"It matters to me." she replied.

April stared at her for a moment as if she was deciding whether to trust her. She bit her lip before shaking her head and focusing on her again.

"When I… when I hurt Taylor, I was there, in my head, but I couldn't control my body. I could see what I was doing, but I couldn't stop. I just wanted to stop. I'm sorry." The young woman said quickly, panicked as if she thought that Elena would freak out and blame her.

"You don't need to apologize. April, some of the kids at school told the police that you and Taylor didn't get along." She said, writing down what the girl was saying in her notebook.

"Well, yeah, but I never wanted to kill her. Never. Do you believe me?" April asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, April, I do. Just a couple more questions." Elena said, steeling herself with the strange reaction that always seemed to come from asking these questions.

"On the day this happened, did you happen to… smell anything?" she asked.

"Anything... like what?" April asked, confused.

"Like rotten eggs or... sulfur?"

"Um… no." the girl said, shaking her head.

"Okay. Did you notice any black smoke?" Elena asked, sighing as April looked freaked out.

"No, I didn't. Why are you asking this?" she demanded.

"I needed to determine if you were hallucinating. Sometimes violent outbursts are caused by hallucinations and these visions can seem pretty real. You can smell things, like sulfur, or see something that might make you think you were possessed. I'm just exploring every avenue here, April." Elena said reassuringly, hoping that she sounded legitimate.

April quieted and answered the rest of her questions with short, stilted answers. When Elena walked out of the psychiatric facility, she dreaded the news that she had to deliver to the brothers.

"So?" Dean asked as she climbed into the car.

"I think she's telling the truth. I mean, the way she talked about being there mentally but not physically… kind of sounds like demonic possession to me." Elena said as she closed the door behind her.

"Kind of?" Sam asked.

"She didn't see any black smoke or smell sulfur." She said with a frown.

"Maybe it's not a demon. I mean, kids can be vicious." Dean shrugged.

"Well, I mean, we're already here. Might as well check out the school." Sam said, looking at Dean.

"Right. The school." Dean mumbled, turning to face the front.

"What?" Sam questioned.

"Truman High, home of the Bombers." Dean recited, sounding as though he'd rather go anywhere else.

"What's your point?" Sam asked.

"I mean, we went there, like... for a month a million years ago. Why are you so jazzed to go back?" Dean asked, scoffing lightly.

"I'm not. I just think it's worth looking into." Sam shrugged.

"All right, well, what's our cover? FBI? Homeland Security? Swedish exchange students?" the older brother scoffed.

"Don't worry. I got an idea." Sam said, nodding.

"Okay." Dean shrugged as they drove away from the facility.

They immediately checked into a hotel and decided to pursue the high school thing the next day. Sam immediately went out to get them all food from a diner as Elena and Dean elected to remain in the room.

"So, you wanna tell me what else you have against this school?" Elena asked, lying back on the bed and looking over at Dean, who was sitting on the couch.

"I don't have anything against the school." He shrugged, sipping on a beer.

Elena simply raised her eyebrow.

"Fine, it just… it wasn't a good experience." He said dismissively.

"Tell me?" she requested, turning over on her stomach to face him with her head cradled in her hands.

Dean sighed and shook his head before launching into the story.

* * *

_Dean couldn't help but sense the irony in his father's choice of music as they pulled up to the new high school. __**Long, Long Way from Home**__ by Foreigner beat out of the speakers as he opened the door and climbed out to face Truman High School._

"_Thanks, Dad." He said as Sam climbed out._

"_I'll be back in two weeks, you hear? Behave yourselves and try not to attract too much attention. See you soon." John said gruffly before driving off._

_They started walking towards the school, Sam clutching at the straps of his backpack as they did so._

"_Got your lunch? Books? Butterfly knife?" Dean listed, looking down at his little brother._

"_Yeah, Dean." Sam sighed._

"_You okay?" he asked, worried about him._

"_Sure." Sam shrugged._

"_Sammy..." he began, knowing how much his brother hated when their dad just dropped them off and disappeared from town for a couple of weeks._

"_I mean, look, this is the third school we've been to this year, and it's only November. I'm just sick of always being the new kid." Sam ranted, gesturing up at the high school._

"_You'll be fine. If anyone gives you any trouble, you let me know. Relax. Dad said this hunt will take him two weeks, tops. As soon as he gets back, we're out of here." Dean assured him._

"_To another school. Awesome." Sam said sarcastically, speeding up to stomp into the school._

_Dean sighed and shook his head as he walked inside behind his little brother._

* * *

"So Sam was never too happy with the whole, being dropped off at school thing, huh?" Elena said, looking up at Dean.

"Nah, he wasn't. And to be honest, neither was I. I mean, I tried to act all tough and cool about it. I truly wanted to feel like I was the king of the world. No parents, curfew, no one to stop me from using my fake ID to buy beer or my fancy fleabag motel room to lure hot teenage girls from the high school into my bed. But it sucked. Every time it got worse and worse. But this time was especially bad for both of us." Dean said.

* * *

_Dean stood in front of the class as the teacher, an old bird with a stern face and an annoyingly high-pitched voice, introduced him._

"_Class, say hello to our new student, Dean Winchester. Dean, is there anything you'd like to tell us about yourself?" The teacher asked, turning to face him._

"_Not really, sweetheart." Dean said with a smirk, turning to her._

"_Take your seat." The teacher said with narrowed eyes, pointing out at the desks._

_Dean sauntered down the aisle and took a seat, pushing his hands into his dad's leather jacket that he was wearing._

"_Dean, where are your books?" the teacher asked when she noticed that he was empty handed._

"_Don't need 'em, sugar. Not gonna be here long enough anyway." Dean said cockily._

_He turned and noticed a hot blonde staring at him. He winked and she flushed slightly before smiling back at him._

* * *

"So really, you have always been a cocky bastard?" Elena laughed as she stood to join him on the couch.

Dean chuckled as well and accepted her into his arms as she curled into his side.

"I suppose I have. But have you seen my face? I've earned it." he said with a smirk.

Elena laughed and shook her head.

"You are full of it."

"Yeah, I suppose I am." Dean shrugged.

"So what else happened?" Elena questioned.

Dean was interrupted from answering by Sam walking in with the food.

"Did you forget the pie?" Dean demanded, jumping up to take the food from him.

"Dude, once again, I never forget the pie." Sam said with a roll of his eyes.

"Sam, Dean was just telling me about his experience at Truman. Do you have any story to tell as well?" Elena asked, putting him on the spot as she took her own food from the bag.

Sam shrugged and looked at Dean, who looked at him with a hesitant look, as if he didn't know whether Sam would tell Elena the story or not.

"I was a freshman…" he began.

* * *

"_Ladies and gentlemen, please say hello to Sam Winchester." The teacher, Mr. Wyatt, said to the classroom full of students._

"_Hi, Sam." The class all said at once._

"_Is there anything you'd like to tell us about yourself?" Mr. Wyatt asked Sam, turning to look at him._

"_Not really." Sam shrugged, not liking all the attention that was on it._

_He wasn't like Dean, he didn't thrive on it._

"_Okay. Uh, grab a seat." Mr. Wyatt said, gesturing to the desks._

_He walked down the aisle slowly, finding a desk and pulling his backpack off to put on it. As he did so, his knife fell out landed on the seat. He quickly grabbed it and shoved it back into the backpack._

"_Whoa! Is that yours?" the kid next to him said, his eyes wide as he stared at Sam._

_He shrugged and sat down, turning to face the front._

"_All right, gang... essay assignment." Mr. Wyatt announced._

"_Aw!" The class all chanted at once._

"_Yeah, yeah, my heart breaks for you." the teacher said sarcastically, turning to write instructions on the board as he spoke._

"_Hey... I'm Barry." The kid next to him whispered._

"_Sam." He whispered back._

"_Okay, now, I want three pages of your most memorable family experience. Just a reminder though, this is going to be worth half your final grade…" Sam's attention was taken away from the explanation by the kid who was sitting behind Barry and flicking his ear._

"_Leave him alone." He hissed._

"_Shh, I'm going for a record." The bigger kid said, ignoring Sam's command._

"_I don't care what you write about, or even how you write about it. I'm looking for the brutal, funny, maybe even painful, truth. OK everybody, any questions? OK, let's get started." Mr. Wyatt said, clapping his hands before sitting down at his own desk._

"_I said, leave him alone." Sam said, glaring at the boy._

"_You want to take his place... midget?" he demanded, glaring back at Sam._

"_Yeah. Sure." Sam agreed without thinking, knowing that he could beat up this bully if he absolutely had to._

* * *

"Hmm, challenging the school bully. How heroic of you." Elena said with a smile, causing Sam to smile back.

"Yeah, he was… uh, he was frustrating." he agreed.

Dean turning on the television and flipping through the channels interrupted them.

"Hey, Busty Asian Beauties." He said as he reached the more adult stations.

"No!" Elena and Sam both yelled, Elena snatching the remote from his hand and changing it as quickly as she could.

* * *

Elena's heels clicked on the floor as she walked through the hallway. Her hair was pulled up into a straight ponytail and she was wearing a professional outfit. When she walked into the school office, everyone who was milling around looked up at her.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked.

"Yes, I'm the grief counselor." Elena said, holding out her ID card.

"I didn't realize that a grief counselor was coming. I am Principal Woods." A man said, stepping forward.

"I was contacted by a concerned parent. I hope you won't mind if I keep the name confidential." Elena said with a solemn smile.

"Of course. As long as we're not being charged for this." the man said.

"I do not charge for schools who have been through a trauma." She confirmed.

"Great. How would you like to get started?" he asked.

"I need an office and I will start with talking to the closest friends of both Taylor Stiles and April Williams. They are the ones who are the closest to the two girls and are most likely the hardest hit. If there are any other students who have been exhibiting disturbing behavior since the incident, I will need to talk to them as well." Elena said, looking around the office.

"That will be a simple task with Miss Stiles but... well, April Williams didn't have any friends." the principal said with a smirk as some of the other staff tittered.

Elena turned her eyes on them, narrowing them dangerously.

"Mr. Woods, if you ever wonder why your students are shoving each other's heads into toilets, I would look at your own behavior as a catalyst. The fact that you would laugh at a poor damaged girl's misfortune is horrifying and sadistic." She snapped, turning to walk to the office with his name on the door.

"I'll take your office, if you don't mind." She said, turning to smirk back at him before she walked inside.

* * *

Elena rubbed her forehead as she walked down the hallway on a break. As much as she hated to admit it because it made her sound old despite the fact that she was eighteen, but these kids were exhausting her. She hoped to God and all his angels that she was never like that as a high school student. It was easy to fool people into thinking she was an actual counselor though. The principal kept giving her glares after she told him off about making fun of April Williams. Ahead of her, she saw a tall, shaggy haired janitor walking down the hallway pushing a cart. It wasn't difficult to figure out who he was.

When he stared into a classroom sadly before moving on, she frowned at his look and sped up to see what was wrong. Elena saw the name **Mr. Wyatt** on the door as she passed. She remembered hearing his name in Sam's story and wondered what about the teacher made the younger Winchester sad. She saw him walk ahead and leave the cart behind.

"Hey, Sam!" she hissed, trying to catch up with him but eventually slipping off her heels and running to walk by his side.

"How are you doing?" she asked, looking up at him.

He smiled down at her.

"I'm a janitor." He replied.

"Could be worse. You could be part of the lunch crew and finally know what they put in that mystery meat." She said with a grin.

Sam let out a short laugh and shook his head as he threw his arm over her shoulders.

"How is counseling?" he asked as they walked towards the door.

"High schoolers are insane." She said with a roll of her eyes.

"Shouldn't you still be in high school?" he murmured.

Elena squinted up at him.

"We don't talk about that." she said.

"Well, then how about we go see how Dean is doing filling in as the physical education teacher?" Sam asked.

"Now that… is the best damn idea you've had all day." Elena said with a grin, hooking her arm through his and dragging him towards the gym.

They walked in to see the high school kids lined up and Dean pacing in front of them. He was wearing a white polo shirt and tight, short red shorts. A red athletic headband was wrapped around his head and he held a whistle in his hand. Elena and Sam took one look at him before clapping their hands over their mouths to keep their laughter in. He blew the whistle loudly and the teenagers all stood up a bit straighter.

"Today, you will have the honor of playing one of the greatest games ever invented. A game of skill, agility, cunning. A game with one simple rule... dodge." Dean said with all seriousness.

He picked up a ball and threw it to where it slammed straight into a student's stomach. Elena and Sam gasped with wide eyes.

"He didn't dodge." Elena muttered to Sam, who nodded.

"He doesn't get the point of the game." Sam agreed.

"Sorry." Dean said, wincing at the student.

"Uh, Substitute Coach Roth..." a student said, raising his hand nervously.

"Yes?" Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"Ms. Boudreaux never let us play dodge ball." The kid informed him.

"Well, Ms. B's in Massachusetts getting married, so we're playing." He replied, grinning proudly.

"She says it's dangerous."

Dean blew his whistle loudly and stared at the student for a moment.

"Take a lap!" Dean commanded.

"But…" the boy began to argue before he turned to run around the gym.

Dean finally noticed them and threw the bag of dodgeballs at them.

"Go nuts." He told them before jogging over there.

"Having fun?" Sam asked, smirking at his brother.

"The whistle makes me their god." Dean said proudly, holding up the instrument of 'power'.

"Right. Nice shorts." Elena said, a grin slowly spreading across her face.

Her and Sam exchanged a look and began laughing uncontrollably. Dean's eyes narrowed at them as they pointed at the short shorts. The students all looked at them with startled looks, probably wondering why a janitor, a substitute p.e. coach, and a counselor were all talking and why they were laughing at disgruntled Dean.

"Find anything?" he asked gruffly, trying to end the laughter.

"I've been over the entire school twice. No sulfur." Sam said, still chuckling lightly.

"No sulfur, no demon. No demon, no case." Dean shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe I was wrong." Sam shrugged.

"Well, it happens to the best of us. I say we hit the road, huh? But after lunch… it's sloppy-joe day." Dean said, pointing at them.

"Ohh!" the student said, running by them and holding his ribs tightly.

"Good hustle, Colby! Walk it off!" Dean yelled, clapping his hands as he returned to the class.

* * *

Once she left the gym with Sam, walking back to do more counseling interviews, Elena slid her shoes back on when they reached the hallway. They were walking back towards the office when they heard a sickly scream followed by several other screams. They both whirled around to see students running out of a classroom. Elena looked at Sam with wide eyes before they ran straight towards the classroom. When they got to the door, the first thing they saw was blood covering a desk and a male student hunched over screaming his head off. A student stood over him with blood on his face. He looked dazed for a moment before he began to faint.

Sam ran forward and caught the student before he hit the ground. Elena ran to the student who was already kneeling on the ground and cried out in shock when she saw his mangled hand. Her first reaction was to rip her sweater off and bend down, wrapping it around his hand and wrapping her arm around his shoulders as he sobbed. She looked up at Sam with wide eyes, who was still holding the other student up.

* * *

Elena sighed as she walked out of the auditorium.

"How's the nonviolence assembly going?" Sam asked as him and Dean pushed themselves off of the wall where they were waiting for her.

They were back in their normal clothing.

"Who did that?" Dean demanded, glaring at the door.

Elena rolled her eyes and sighed, shaking her head.

"I just had to bullshit my way through a speech about talking about feelings instead of acting out in anger. Do you know how hard it is to talk about that legitimately when half of the audience are horny teenage boys who are mimicking groping me? Then the jackass principal kept talking about healthy displays of anger as if he was an expert on it. Then he glared at me throughout my entire speech. I think the guy has it out for me." she grumbled, putting her hands on her hips.

"Apparently, shoving a kid's arm into a Cuisinart is not a 'healthy display of anger'. So, the kid had ectoplasm leaking out his ear?" Dean asked Sam, throwing his arm over Elena's shoulders as they turned to walk down the hallway.

"Which only comes from a seriously pissed-off spirit. It's got to be ghost possession." Sam said, sounding vaguely triumphant.

"Yeah, but that's pretty rare." Dean said, still trying to prove that he was right.

"Yeah, but it happens. I mean, they get angry enough, they can take control of a person's body." Sam argued.

"Boys, boys, if you're gonna whip 'em out, at least let me leave the room first." Elena said with a roll of her eyes as they walked outside and towards the Impala.

"All right, so, what, we got a ghost in the building?" Dean sighed, leaning over to kiss her forehead.

"Yeah, but where? I mean, there's no EMF. Maybe we could find out who it is, at least. You know, check and see if somebody died bloody around here or something." Sam shrugged.

"Way ahead of you. I had to break into the principal's office to get this. Oh, and FYI, three of the cheerleaders are legal. Guess which ones." Dean said, turning to grin at them.

Elena stopped short and ducked under his arm, glaring at him as he looked guiltily at her.

"No." Sam said, rolling his eyes.

"I was just kidding." Dean said, smiling hesitantly at her.

Elena simply held out her hand for the information.

"So, there was only one death on campus. It was a suicide back in '98. Some kid named Barry Cook." He said as Elena read the same information.

Sam's head shot up and he looked between them with sad eyes.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked.

"I knew him. How did he die?" Sam sighed, looking dejected.

"He slit his wrists in the first-floor girls' bathroom." Dean said bluntly, causing Elena to shake her head at his lack of sympathy.

"That's where…" Elena trailed off.

"Right where the chick got swirleyed to death, exactly. So, what? This ghost is possessing nerds?" Dean asked.

"And using them to go after bullies, yeah." Sam nodded.

"Well, does that sound like Barry's M.O.?" Elena asked, folding up the piece of paper and handing it back to Sam.

"Barry had a hard time." Sam sighed.

* * *

_It was between classes and Sam was walking down the hall. He looked up in time to see Barry knocked down by a bigger upperclassman. He ran to him and helped him pick up his fallen books._

"_Thanks, Sam." Barry said softly, looking humiliated._

"_Great school." Sam said, looking around the people that were purposefully sidestepping the two._

"_I don't care. Three years, and I'm out of here. I'm going to Michigan State. They got the best vet program in the country." The other boy shrugged._

"_Do you like animals?" Sam asked, smiling at his friend._

"_They're a lot nicer than people." Barry said as an explanation as they stood to walk._

_Sam looked around in time to see his brother walking out of a closet with an attractive blonde holding his hand and both of them looking satisfied. It wasn't the first time Sam saw his brother in the janitor's closet with a girl and it wouldn't likely be the last._

"_Yo! Sammy!" Dean said, pointing at him before turning to walk off with the girl._

"_That's your brother with Amanda Heckerling? He's cool." Barry said, in awe of the older boy._

"_Yeah. He thinks so." Sam scoffed, shaking his head._

"_Hey, tough guy. I been looking for you. Still want to take Barry's place?" Dirk said, walking up with his arms crossed threateningly over his chest._

"_Get out of here, Barry." Sam said, pushing the smaller kid away from the bully._

"_I'll go get a teacher." Barry said quickly, turning to run off._

"_You want to go?" Dirk asked, smirking down at him._

"_I'm not gonna fight you, Dirk." Sam refused, shaking his head._

"_Why not? You chicken? Come on!" the boy said, shoving at Sam._

"_No." he refused, stumbling backwards but still refusing to fight him._

_Dirk reared back and hit Sam across the eye, causing him to fall down on the ground. Sam simply looked up at him unemotionally, trying to hold his anger at bay._

"_Get up! Get up! Come on! Get up!" Dirk taunted him, standing over him._

"_Hey, get back! Get back. That is enough." Mr. Wyatt said, pushing through the crowd to end the fight._

_Dirk turned to walk away and the teacher took off after him as Sam sighed and looked up at Barry, who was standing at the edge of the crowd looking panicked._

* * *

Sam finished his story just as they pulled up to the motel to find information on where Barry Cook was buried.

"I still don't know why you didn't kick that kid's ass right off the bat." Dean said as he opened the door for them.

"Because I was trying to be somewhat normal." Sam sighed as he walked inside first.

Elena hung back and looked up at Dean with a raised eyebrow.

"Girl in a closet, huh?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well… you see… yeah it happened." Dean said resignedly.

"Mm-hm. We've had my awkward ex's conversation. In fact, you've met one of them. But I seem to remember that we've never talked about yours." She said, pointing at him as she walked backwards through the door.

Dean scoffed. "Well your ex's conversation lasted about ten minutes. Mine would last about ten hours." He informed her.

"Well we better get started with the blonde in the closet." Elena said with amused eyes as she watched Sam disappear into the bathroom.

Dean groaned and sat on the bed, running his fingers through his short hair.

* * *

_They were in the closet making out, Dean's favorite place to be in the school other than the parking lot leaving._

"_So tonight I'm thinking you, me, a bucket of popcorn, extra butter..." he said as he pulled away, tucking a stray hair behind her ear._

"_Mm, kinky." Amanda said with a slight smile, her arms still wrapped around his neck._

"_..and the midnight screening of "I Spit on Your Grave" at the Cinedome." He suggested, playing with the collar of her shirt._

"_I can't. I have a curfew... at 11:00." She said, disappointed._

"_So?" Dean shrugged._

"_So if I break it, my folks will ground me for a month." Amanda said with a chuckle._

"_Yeah, parents. Terrifying." He rolled his eyes at the words._

"_Mm-hm. Well, when's your curfew?" she questioned, pulling away to straighten her shirt._

"_I don't have one." _

"_Your parents just let you stay out all night, don't they?" Amanda said with a grin, combing her hair out with her hands._

"_My Dad's out of town on a job. It's just me and my brother." Dean said, looking away as the conversation was getting a bit too close to home._

"_For how long?" _

"_Couple of weeks." He said, reaching out to play with a dry sponge that was sitting on a shelf. _

"_Seriously?" Amanda asked, her eyes wide though he couldn't see it as his back was still turned._

"_Yeah, we got a pretty sweet setup at The Pines." Dean nodded._

"_The motel?" she said, sounding as though she was pitying him._

_The last thing he wanted was pity._

"_Mm-hmm. HBO, magic fingers, free ice… it's great." Dean said with a grin as he turned around._

"_Yeah... I guess." Amanda shrugged, looking solemn with her lips forming a pout._

"_What? I do whatever I want, whenever I want. It's perfect." Dean asked, reaching out to take her hand._

"_Yeah, but... don't you miss your Dad?" Amanda asked._

_Dean didn't answer, turning to open the door and walk out so that he didn't have to answer her question. That was when he spotted his little brother walking down the hallway with a dorky looking kid._

"_Yo! Sammy!" he said, pointing at him before turning to walk down the hallway with Amanda at his side._

"_Is that your little brother?" Amanda asked._

"_Yeah, he's a good kid." Dean said, looking back to catch one last glimpse at Sammy before they turned the corner._

* * *

"Popcorn with extra butter? That's your best pickup line?" Elena asked, grinning at him as she turned to the bathroom to change when Sam walked out.

"Hey! It worked sometimes!" Dean argued.

"Mmm… I'm sure it did." she said skeptically before she disappeared.

She came back moments later with black jeans, converse, a dark green long sleeved cotton t-shirt, and a black unbuttoned shirt of Dean's that she stole out of his bag. He didn't seem to mind once he saw her in it.

"I figured out which cemetary he's in." Sam said solemnly, holding up a piece of paper.

"Let's get going." Dean nodded, holding out his hand to Elena before they walked out.

Forty-five minutes later, they were standing over the freshly dug grave and Elena was grimacing down at the bones of Sam's former friend. Sam tossed the salt and fuel on the coffin before Dean threw down a lighted match.

"So long, Barry Cook." Dean said gruffly, his hunter side coming out as he tried to keep himself emotionless as he often did for hunts.

They all turned away to walk out of the cemetary, Elena walking between the two brothers.

"You all right?" she asked Sam.

"Barry was my friend. I just burned his bones." he said softly.

"Well, he's at peace now, Sam." Dean threw in, looking over at his little brother.

"I mean, if Dad had let us stay just a little while longer, maybe I could have helped the kid, you know?" Sam said, glancing back at the smoke rising out of the grave.

"You read the coroner's report same as me. Barry was on every anxiety drug and antidepressant known to man. School was hell for that kid. His parents had split up. He just wanted out. It was tragic, but it's not your fault. To tell you the truth, I'm glad we got out of that town. I hated that school." Dean said, shaking his head as he kicked at a rock.

"It wasn't all bad." Sam shrugged, looking down as well.

"How can you say that after what happened to you?" Dean questioned, looking over at his brother with disbelief on his face

"What happened to you?" Elena asked, looking up at him.

* * *

_The two brothers were on the football field. Sam was sitting on the bleachers while Dean paced in front of him._

"_That kid's dead." He growled._

"_Dean." Sam sighed._

"_I'm gonna rip his lungs out!" he snapped, kicking at a rock on the ground._

"_It's not a big deal."_

"_Not a big deal? Sammy, look at yourself. If Dad was here…" Dean said, gesturing to Sam's black eye._

"_He's not." Sam snapped._

"_Well, I am! And as soon I'm finished with that dick…" Dean said, shaking his head as he cracked his knuckles._

"_Shut up, okay?! I don't need your help." Sam said pleadingly._

"_That's right, you don't. You could have torn him apart. So why didn't you?" the older brother demanded._

"_Because I don't want to be the freak for once, Dean. I want to be normal." Sam said, looking down at his hands._

"_So taking a beating… that's normal?" Dean asked, cracking a slight smile._

_Sam shrugged before hesitantly smiling back at his brother. Sometimes, when he wasn't being such a jerk, Dean could be cool._

"_Any word from Dad?" Sam asked._

"_He called this morning, said he's going to be another week at least. We weren't supposed to be here this long." Dean said, frustrated._

"_At least you've got Amanda. She's cool." Sam said, trying to get Dean to see the bright side._

"_Dude, she wants me to meet her parents. I don't do parents." He said, looking up at the sky as if he was asking for answers._

* * *

Elena smiled at Dean's concern for his brother when they were younger and his insistance that he would kick the kid's ass who punched Sam. Neither of them said anything else as they climbed into the Impala to head back to the motel. They would leave for Sioux Falls the next morning but they were going to rest that night. When they arrived at the motel, Sam climbed out of the car and turned to walk in the direction of the park next to the motel. Dean stared after him with a worried expression.

"Is it all right if I go talk to him?" she asked, worried about him as well.

"Yeah, just tell me if he says anything… weird… okay?" Dean asked, obviously still touchy about them keeping secrets from him.

"Of course." She nodded with a smile, kissing his cheek before following Sam to the park.

When she got there, he was leaning against the swing set.

"You know, I used to always love swinging." She said as she breezed past him to sit on one of the swings.

He watched as she began swinging back and forth. His hardened gaze slowly melted into a slight smile as she shot him a silly grin.

"What's going on, Sam? You've been really sad this entire hunt." She said, her smile disappearing as she questioned him.

He sighed and shook his head.

"It just brings back memories. Last time I was here, I was so set on changing my life." he said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Changing your life?" Elena questioned.

Sam looked up at her before opening his mouth to tell her what he meant.

* * *

_Mr. Wyatt's class had just ended and Sam was trailing behind everyone as they walked out. He was dead set on keeping himself under the radar so that Dirk didn't come after him again._

"_Mr. Winchester, can I talk to you?" Mr. Wyatt asked._

_He walked up to the desk and Barry turned to see that he was stopped._

"_Um... I'll wait for you outside." the boy said before turning to run out._

"_Look, if this is about the fight, I didn't start it." Sam began to defend himself._

"_Oh, no, it's not about the fight, Sam. You know this assignment was nonfiction, right?" Mr. Wyatt said, holding up the handwritten paper._

"_Yes, Mr. Wyatt." Sam said, nodding as a feeling of dread filled him._

"_So you and your family killed a werewolf last summer, huh? Why would you write something like this, Sam?" the teacher asked._

"_It doesn't matter. As soon as my Dad gets back, we're leaving, so you can flunk me if you want to." Sam said sadly, looking down at his feet._

"_I'm not flunking you. I'm giving you an 'A'." Mr. Wyatt said, much to Sam's surprise as he looked up with wide eyes._

"_Now, aside from the werewolf, is that really how you'd describe your family?" Mr. Wyatt asked, pointing to the paper as he set it down on the desk._

"_Yeah." Sam nodded._

"_Well, your brother is quite a character. And your father… he seems, uh, driven. Anyway, it's good, Sam. It's really good. Have you ever thought about pursuing writing?" the older male asked._

"_I can't. I have to go into the family business." he said quickly._

"_Family business?" Mr. Wyatt questioned._

"_Yeah, my, uh… my dad's a mechanic. So I have to be a mechanic, too." Sam nodded, sounding less than thrilled about it._

"_Do you want to go in the family business, Sam?" Mr. Wyatt asked._

"_No one's ever asked me that before." Sam asked after a moment of thinking._

"_Well?" he pushed._

"_More than anything, no." Sam sighed, shaking his head._

"_Well... I don't want to overstep my bounds here, but... you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Look, I mean, I know what it's like. I come from a family of surgeons, and that wasn't me. So, you know, I traded in the money and prestige of being a doctor for all the glamour you see around you. But the point is... there may be three or four big choices that shape someone's whole life, and you need to be the one that makes them, not anyone else. You seem like a great kid, Sam. Just live the life you want to live." Mr. Wyatt said, nodding at Sam with a small smile._

_Sam smiled back hesitantly. Dare he dream to do something other than the hunting that his father was deadset on getting him into?_

* * *

"It's cool that you had a teacher who was so honest with you and made you realize that you didn't want to go into the hunter life." Elena said, wondering what changed because Sam was obviously a hunter.

"Yeah, I actually think that teacher is the reason I went to college and was about to go to law school." Sam nodded.

"Law school, wow. Why didn't you?" Elena asked.

Sam sighed and reached into his back pocket, pulling his wallet out. He slid a small picture out of one of the slots and handed it to her. A beautiful girl with long golden hair was laughing at the camera as a much younger Sam leaned in to kiss her cheek.

"She's beautiful." Elena said, smiling down at the picture before handing it back to him.

"Her name was Jess. She was my girlfriend throughout college. I was actually going to ask her to marry me the day of my first law school interview. Then… two days before my interview with Stanford Law, Dean showed up and told me that Dad went missing after going on a hunt. He thought he was in trouble and needed my help. I went out and on a hunt with him. We solved it and got rid of the ghost. I went back to our house that we shared only to find that the love of my life was stuck on the ceiling with her stomach ripped open. She caught on fire and… well I'm pretty sure that I would have died if Dean hadn't come in to pull me out." Sam said looking down at his hands as he spoke.

Elena bit her lip and stood, walking to Sam to embrace him.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered, pressing her face into his chest.

"It was a long time ago." Sam whispered, yet he embraced her back anyways.

"Tell you what, how about we go back to the school tomorrow before we leave and you can go talk to that teacher. You can tell him about how much he changed your life because… well you never know, it could make you feel better." She suggested, pulling away to look up at him.

"That sounds great." He said, nodding as he swallowed thickly.

Elena smiled at him before turning to walk back to the motel.

"I'm gonna stay here for a few more minutes, if that's okay." Sam said.

"All right. Stay safe." Elena nodded before walking away.

When she walked inside, Dean was propped up on the bed switching through the channels. Elena jumped on it with him and curled into his side.

"How's he doing?" he asked.

"He isn't great. I think he's just sad. He told me about Jess' death." Elena said. "He didn't say much, but I noticed that the way he talked about your dad… well it wasn't very happy or anything."

Dean flinched and she looked up at him.

"Ever since Sam found out that Dad was a hunter and that he was training us to be the same, Sam had a strained relationship with him. When he left to go to college, on a full scholarship, Dad told him…" Dean cut off.

Elena simply stared at him, not pressing him finish the thought.

"He told him that if he left, he might as well never come back cause he wasn't welcome." He said sadly, leaning his head back to look at the ceiling.

"I'm sure he regretted that every day for the rest of his life." Elena murmured, reaching up to stroke Dean's cheek.

He looked down at her and nodded.

"I know he did." he agreed.

Elena smiled sadly before stretching up to kiss his lips. Then she took the remote from his hand and switched off the television.

"Let's get some sleep." She urged, sliding down on the bed and dragging him with her.

Sometimes, she fell into the habit of sleeping in her clothes just like Dean and Sam did. It was convenient and comfortable for when they had to make a quick getaway for any reason. Elena buried her head in Dean's shirt and inhaled deeply as he played with her hair gently.

"Elena?" Dean asked.

"Yeah?" she mumbled, her eyes fluttering open.

"I wanna tell you about my dad." He said softly, sounding unsure.

Her eyes opened wider and she looked up at him.

"Whenever you're ready." She promised him, kissing his lips softly before stroking his cheek and going back to cuddling with him.

With that statement hanging in the air, both of them fell asleep quickly.

* * *

Elena remained back a little from the boys, her hand holding Dean's, as they walked up to the school.

"We came back here so you could talk to a teacher?" Dean asked, looking over at Sam with a cocked eyebrow.

"He's a good guy." Sam defended himself.

"Leave him alone." Elena said, slapping the older brother's arm lightly.

"Well, whatever. Go have your Robin Williams 'O captain! My captain!' moment. Just make it quick." Dean said when they walked through the doors.

Dean dragged Elena off into a totally different direction as Sam headed towards Mr. Wyatt's room.

"Where are you taking me?" she laughed as he walked down the hallway quickly.

"Shh." He urged her, stopping and opening a door befores stepping into the dimly lit closet.

"Oh no way." she said, shaking her head before he yanked her inside.

His arms wrapped around her waist after he pulled the door closed.

"Feel like we're in high school again?" he asked, kissing up her neck as he pressed her to the metal shelves.

"I don't think I would have wanted to meet you in high school, Dean. I don't know that I could have handled the manwhore of it all." She joked, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"Mmm… you would have loved me." Dean said, nipping at her ear before latching his lips onto her earlobe.

She let out a breath moan as his teeth dragged it into his mouth.

"Dean…" she murmured, pulling his face up to her lips to kiss him.

As they began to make out, their kissing was interrupted by a loud scream. They were slamming their way out of the janitor's closet within moments. They ran down the hallway to find Sam sitting on the ground holding an unconcsious teenager with a container of salt in his hand and most of the white grains in the girl's mouth.

"What happened?" Dean demanded.

* * *

They were sitting on the Impala, well Sam and Elena were, Dean was leaning against the hood between Elena's legs as they all sipped beers in the school parking lot.

"Trust me. This will help. That ghost is dead. I'm gonna rip its lungs out! Well, you know what I mean." Dean said, sounding pissed.

Elena smiled at the protective feeling the older brother had about the younger one that never seemed to go away.

"It knew my name, Dean. My real name. We burned Barry's bones. What the hell?" Sam said, looking freaked.

"Well, maybe it wasn't Barry. Maybe we missed something. We just got to go back." Dean suggested.

"No way. How did we not see this before?" Elena said as she flipped through the files with wide eyes..

"What?" Sam asked.

"Look, April Williams, the food processor guy, and that girl back there… they rode the same bus." Elena said, looking up at them.

"Okay, so maybe the bus is haunted." Sam suggested.

"Well, that would explain why there's no EMF at the school, but not the attacks. I mean, ghosts are tied to the places that they haunt. They can't just bail." Dean said with a confused expression.

"Unless this one can. Dean, there's lore about spirits possessing people and riding them for miles, then whenever they leave the body, they're bungeed back to their usual haunt. But until then, the ghosts can go wherever they want." Sam explained.

"So a spook just grabs a kid on the bus and walks right into Truman?" he asked.

"It's possible." Sam nodded.

"Ghosts getting creative… well, that's super." Dean scoffed, throwing his beer bottle as far as he could across the parking lot.

* * *

After walking across the school campus, Elena stood outside the bus keeping watch as Sam and Dean explored inside.

"Definitely ain't clean." She heard Sam say as he handled the EMF detector.

"Here, ghosty, ghosty, ghosty! Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Dean chanted, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Man, I don't get it. No one ever died on this bus, and it's not like there's a body hidden in here." Sam said, confused as he looked around.

"Yeah, but a flap of skin, a hair, I mean, hell, a hangnail… something's got to be tying the ghost to this place. We just got to find it." Dean said, stopping at the front to search through the papers.

"Yeah." Sam agreed.

"Got a new driving permit. Issued two weeks ago." the older brother announced.

"Just before the first attack." Elena called.

"Yeah. Name of the bus driver is Dirk McGregor Sr., 39 North Central Avenue." Dean informed them.

"McGregor?" Sam asked, causing Dean to look back at him.

"Yeah. Why?" he asked.

"I knew his son." Sam said as they climbed off of the bus.

"Did you know everybody at this school?" Dean demanded.

Elena looked over at Sam to see him looking far off and sad once again.

* * *

_School was letting out and Sam was walking towards the parking lot to find Dean. He caught sight of Dirk pushing Barry down and he ran forward, damning the consequences._

"_Got to watch where you're going, man." Dirk laughed._

"_Leave him alone, Dirk." Sam said, getting in between them._

"_You never learn, do you, midget?" the bigger boy demanded, staring Sam up and down._

"_Get to the bus, Barry."_

_Barry ran off just as Dirk pushed Sam down._

"_What's the matter? You scared? Don't worry. I'll go easy on you this time. Come on, Lose-chester. Let's see what you got. Come on, freak! Freak!" Dirk said, taunting him as Sam stood._

_Finally his temper broke and he launched at Dirk, fighting him. He was obviously the better fighter as all of his hard punches found somewhere on Dirks' body and none of Dirk's punches landed._

"_You're not tough. You're just a jerk. Dirk the Jerk." Sam said as he knocked Dirk down onto the ground with a startled expression._

_The crowd around Sam starting chanting, 'Dirk the Jerk', until the boy ran off, leaving Sam feeling semi-proud and semi-bad. He sighed and picked up his bag, ignoring the congratulatory slaps on the back as he walked towards the parking lot._

* * *

Sam and Dean were in the living room with Dirk McGregor's father as Elena remained out in the car because it served their cover for the bus driver better.

"So, you were friends with Dirk?" Mr. McGregor asked the brothers.

"Yes, sir, in high school." Sam nodded.

"I don't recall Dirk having many friends at Truman. Here, sit. Sit down." The man said, gesturing to the couch.

"When did, uh… when did Dirk pass?" Dean asked.

"He was 18." Mr. McGregor nodded sadly, looking up at a picture of an older Dirk on the mantle.

"What happened to him?" Sam asked politely.

"Well, there was, first, drinking, then drugs, and then too many drugs. And then he just slipped through my fingers. It was my fault. I should have seen it coming, you know? Dirk, he, uh… he had his troubles." The old man said, sounding miserable.

"What kind of troubles?" Dean asked.

"School was never easy for Dirk. We didn't have much money, and, well, you know, kids - they can be cruel. They picked on him."

"They picked on him?" Sam asked, surprised.

"They called him poor and dirty and stupid. They even had a nickname for him… Dirk the jerk."

Dean didn't miss the guilty flash on Sam's face at this news.

"And after what happened to his mother, he…" Mr. McGregor said.

"His mother?" Sam questioned.

"Yeah, Jane, my wife. She died when Dirk was 13. Cancer. I was working three jobs, so it fell to Dirk to take care of her. And he was a great kid. He made sure Jane got her medicine. He helped her, cleaned up after her. But, you know, you… you watch somebody die slow, waste away to nothing... it does things to a person. Horrible things." he said, shaking his head.

"I didn't know about his mother." Sam sighed.

"He… he wouldn't talk about her, not even to me. Lot of anger in that boy." Mr. McGregor nodded.

"I'm sorry." The younger brother said genuinly.

"Well, we'd really like to pay our respects, Mr. McGregor. Um, you mind telling us where Dirk is buried?" Dean said, changing the subject a bit.

"Oh, he wasn't. I had him cremated." Mr. McGregor informed them.

"All of him?" Dean asked, confused.

"Well, I kept a lock of his hair." The man said.

"Oh, that's… that's nice. Where do you keep that?" Dean asked, slightly creeped out.

"On my bus, in my Bible." Mr. McGregor shrugged, not seeing how that piece of information was important.

* * *

Elena stood just off the road as the bus hurtled towards them. Her eyes flashed to Sam and Dean, who were hiding in the bushes on the side of the road. The bus drove over the spike strip that the brothers laid down after they stole it from the police station and the tires blow. The bus swerved for a half a second before coming to a stop. A few moments later, the driver opened the bus door and stepped out of the bus. Elena began to walk up to the bus, avoiding the headlights. Sam walked up to the driver and cocked a shotgun

"Dirk!" he said, narrowing his eyes at the man.

"Winchester. What are you gonna do, shoot me?" Dirk said through the man he was possessing.

Elena stepped into the scene as Dean snuck up behind the man and wrapped a rope around his waist.

"Don't need to. That rope is soaked in salt water, Dirk. You're not going anywhere." Sam said, nodding at Dean.

Elena slipped past them and climbed up on the bus to address the team and the coaches. Dean followed her, his hand on her shoulder.

"All right, everybody stay where you are. You'll be okay." Dean said in a calming tone.

"Aren't you the P.E. Teacher? And you're the counselor." one of the players asked.

Not really. We're like '21 Jump Street'. The bus driver sells pot. Yeah." Dean nodded, looking at Elena for confirmation before turning to search for the lock of hair.

"I know it sounds weird but it's true." She nodded, flushing under their gazes.

"It's not here!" Dean yelled, frustrated.

"Where is it?" Sam demanded from outside.

"No way you'll ever find it." Dirk taunted them.

Elena rolled her eyes and slid out of the bus to see what was going on.

"Where is it?!" Sam asked as he pressed the shotgun full of salt rounds to Dirk's chest.

"Sam Winchester. Still a bully. You, you jocks... you popular kids... you always thought you were better than everybody else. And to you, I was just Dirk the Jerk, right? Now you evil sons of bitches are gonna get what's coming to you." Dirk laughed.

"I'm not evil, Dirk. I'm not. And neither were you. Trust me. I've seen real evil. We were scared and miserable, and we took it out on each other.. us and everybody else. That's high school. But you suffer through that, and it gets better. I'm just sorry you didn't get a chance to see that... you or Barry." Sam said sadly.

"Nothing is gonna get better for me. Not ever." Dirk said before he easily broke out of the rope.

Sam immediately fired the gun at him before Elena could react and they watched the form of the ghost fly back into the bus. Moments later, a student launched off of the bus and attacked Sam. Dean jumped out of the bus to fire a salt round but missed.

"Dean! Find the hair!" Sam commanded.

Dean walked to the bus driver, who was unconscious, and began searching through his pockets for the hair.

"Hey, buddy, this isn't what it looks like." Dean

Elena ran to the student/Dirk and reached down to yank him off of Sam. The ghost reacted quickly and suddenly she was thrown backwards onto the asphalt, her head banging on the ground. She looked up to see that Dean found the lock of hair. He took out a lighter and quickly lit it up, turning to see the ghost fly out of the student and disappear in a blaze of fire and then smoke. The impressively sized student fell forward onto Sam's body, unconscious.

"Little help?" Sam choked out.

"He's giving you the full cowgirl." Dean said with a grin, causing Elena to giggle as he turned to help her up and they walked over to pull the student off of Sam.

* * *

Elena and Dean remained outside while Sam went inside the school to finally meet his teacher again.

"So?" she said, turning to lean into Dean, her arms wrapped lazily around his waist.

"So?" he repeated.

"Whatever happened between you and that Amanda Heckerling?" she asked, smirking up at him.

Her smile disappeared when he looked serious and sad.

"You don't have to tell me." she said quickly.

"I want to." He nodded before telling her the rest of the story.

* * *

_He was in the closet again, only this time he wasn't with Amanda. He was with some random girl, he didn't even know her name. But Amanda was still freaking him out. When a knock sounded, he groaned and pulled away._

"_Five more minutes, Jerry." He said to his lookout._

_The door opened and he looked back to see Amanda standign there. He backed away and walked out of the closet, watching as Amanda backed away. _

"_Amanda, hey! Gettysburg address, 1863, right? History test next period. We're studying." He said, smiling nervously._

_The blonde rolled her eyes and turned to walk away._

"_Come on, baby. She means nothing to me. Don't be mad." Dean said pleadingly, catching her arm._

"_I'm not mad, Dean. I thought maybe... underneath your whole 'I could give a crap', bad-boy thing, that there was something more going on. I mean, like the way you are with your brother. But I was wrong. And you spend so much time trying to convince people that you're cool, but it's just an act. We both know that you're just a sad... lonely little kid. And I feel sorry for you, Dean." Amanda scoffed, shaking her head._

"_You feel sorry for me, huh? Don't feel sorry for me. You don't know anything about me. I save lives. I'm a hero. A hero!" Dean shouted as she walked off towards her friends, who were all looking at him as if he was a gigantic asshole._

"_What? What?!" he demanded, glaring at them before walking away._

_Mere hours later, Dean was leaning against his locker glaring around at everyone, daring them to say a word to him. He looked up to see that Sam was walking down the hallway with people patting him on the back and congratulating him. This only made Dean's scowl deepen. He heard about his brother's confrontation with the bully but was upset over the fact that he didn't get the chance to take care of it for his brother. His cell phone rang and he sighed with relief._

"_Dad? Finally." He mumbled, flipping it open to answer it._

_They were outside minutes later. Sam was looking back at the school sadly while Dean bounced on his feet out of anticipation. The Impala pulled up and Dean felt his entire body sing with relief._

"_I can't wait to get the hell out of here. This place sucks. Come on, Sam." Dean said, patting his brother's shoulder before jogging to get into the passenger's seat._

"_Come on, Sam!" John urged his youngest son._

_Sam finally sighed and climbed into the car, wishing he didn't have to leave._

* * *

"I'm sorry." Elena sighed.

"I don't really care. It was forever ago." Dean shrugged.

"No emotional crap?" she asked, looking up at him.

He nodded gruffly.

"Well, even so, I'm here for you still. Whenever you want to talk about anything, including your dad or Sam, I'm willing to listen." She said with a smile.

Dean smiled down at her as well, kissing the top of her head gently.

* * *

Mr. Wyatt was alone when he walked in, knocking on the door hesitantly.

"Uh, Mr. Wyatt?" Sam asked.

"Yes." The teacher asked, looking up.

"You probably don't remember me, um, but my name is Sam Winchester, and I just wanted to thank you." he said, his eyes darting all over the room to see that it looked remarkably the same.

"For?" Mr. Wyatt asked.

"I was a student here, and uh, you gave me some advice once." Sam explained.

"Winchester, right. Right. Yeah. You, uh… you wrote that horror story." Mr. Wyatt nodded, smiling at him as he held his hand out.

"Yeah. Yeah, I did. Yeah, it's kind of all been one long horror story." He chuckled, shaking his former teacher's hand.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Wyatt asked, sounding confused.

"Nothing. Sorry." Sam said, shaking his head.

"So, what was this advice? I might need to plagiarize myself down the line." Mr. Wyatt asked jokingly, leaning against his desk.

"You told me that I didn't have to go into the family business. You said I should make my own choices."

"So you've managed to do your own thing, then, huh?" the man asked.

"Yeah, for a while, yeah. And I think I went to college because of you. But, you know, people grow up." Sam nodded.

"Yeah." Mr. Wyatt agreed.

"Responsibilities. But still, um... you took an interest in me when no one else did. That matters, so thank you." Sam said gratefully.

"Well, you know, the only thing that really matters is that you're happy. Are you happy, Sam?" Mr. Wyatt asked.

Sam stared at him, unable to formulate a reply.

* * *

Later than night, after they returned to Sioux Falls, Elena and Dean were sitting out on the hood of the Impala in the moonlight. She was curled up in his arms and they were staring out at the field.

"I always idolized my father, looked up to him as a hero, you know?" Dean said.

Elena nodded, looking over at him.

"It didn't take much for Sammy to criticize Dad but, man I hardly ever did that." he sighed.

"You wanted him to be a good guy because of the way he raised you." she said.

"Exactly, but I realize, even though there were a lot of good things about him, he wasn't always the man I made him out to be in my mind." Dean said before launching into the story of his father.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! **

**A few things:**

**1. Elena's outfits on profile.**

**2. PLEASE READ! Let me know if you want to see more of Dean describing John to Elena. I am leaving it entirely up to you because it might take up a lot of space.**

**3. PLEASE READ! An idea is forming in my head that came to me yesterday. I'm thinking of writing an AU 'Bonnie & Clyde' fic with Elena and Dean. It won't be for a while because I've just barely thought of it but it would also include both Supernatural and TVD characters. It would be all human. Let me know what you think.**

**4. Review please!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to RHatch89, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, chiwi, Dark Alana, Raven176, LineChokor, slayerdiaries, Dreaming while awake, Nicole0203, Bry Elizabeth M, DrawingMyHeartOut, and MrsMaeveSalvatore-Mikaelson for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. I am going to put off the Dean/Elena conversation about John for a few chapters just because I couldn't figure out a place to put it in this chapter.**

**2. This is the episode with the wishing well, finally. I know it's out of place in the episode list but it will fit in with the storyline as it is now.**

**3. Parts of this chapter are fluffy and happy but parts of are also kinda sad because that's pretty much how the Supernatural series (and TVD) goes. I want to keep it realistic because they are going through a lot and the threat of the apocalypse is still over their heads so I don't really feel comfortable writing a completely fluffy no feelings or angst chapter. I hope that's all right. I will try to make it as happy as possible for you, though.**

* * *

"Look, all I'm saying is that maybe it's not a bad thing that we haven't seen the angels in a while." Dean shrugged before drinking the rest of his bottle of beer and gesturing for another.

"It's been a month and a half, Dean. I haven't seen Cas since he talked to me at Bobby's and we haven't heard a single thing from any of them. For all we know, the apocalypse has started and we are just oblivious to it." Elena said, picking up a fry and eating it slowly.

"I think we would know. I mean, there would be signs." Sam suggested.

"Yeah. Like, you know, water turning into wine… or blood. Whatever." Dean said.

"It's not good." Elena said, looking between them.

"The last time we saw the angels, they wanted to kill Anna. I don't know that I want to work with them after that." Sam said.

"Radical. What else can I get you guys?" the too cheerful waiter said as he stood in front of them with a big smile.

"Uh, I think we're good." Sam said, eyeing him as if he was a disease.

"Yeah?" the man asked, grinning around at them.

"Yeah." Elena nodded, smiling back hesitantly.

"You want to try a couple of fryer bombs? Or a chipotle chili changa?" he exclaimed.

"No, no, we're… we're still good." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Okay, awesome." He said before he bounded away towards another table.

"So what do you want to do, summon the dicks?" Dean asked Elena.

She sighed and shook her head, looking down at her phone.

"I don't know." She said softly, scrolling through the contacts to read off the names of the people of Mystic Falls.

There was no desire in her to go back to that town but she still wondered what they were doing. Were they in danger? Were they all safe? Was Klaus still a threat to any of them? Were the angels protecting them anymore like Cas promised they would?

"Outstanding. Dessert time? Huh? Am I right?" the waiter said happily as he skipped back up to the table ten minutes later.

"Dude." Dean sighed, shaking his head.

"Listen, bros. You have got to try our ice cream extreme. It's extreme." He said, leaning forward to grin at Sam and Dean.

"Uh, no extremities, please. Just the…" Sam began.

"Check? All right, awesome." The waiter said, turning to practically skip away.

"Thanks." Sam said, looking after him with a strange look.

"Why do I feel as though that guy is gonna follow us home and turn us into trophies on his wall?" Dean said, shuddering slightly.

Elena bit her lip and slid out of the chair.

"I'm going to the bathroom." She murmured, walking away from the table without seeing the concerned looks the brothers were giving her.

When she got in the one stall bathroom, she went to the mirror and stood in front of it. As she experimentally moved both of her arms, she winced and lifted her shirt to reveal a large bruise on her ribs. It wasn't the only bruise darkening her skin but it was the biggest one. She touched it softly, crying out a little when pain shot through her torso. She hadn't been healing herself as much lately after the hunts. She would always heal the brothers, never wanting them to be in pain. But she was terrified of healing herself. Because she was starting to feel pain less and less. The punches that she received weren't knocking her off of her feet anymore. Being thrown into walls didn't slow her down much now.

She didn't want to tell anyone, hell she didn't even want to admit it to herself. Because she was terrified that she'd avoided becoming a vampire just to turn around and become a whole other supernatural creature without her permission. That's why she wanted to find Castiel or the other angels so badly. Because she needed to know what was going with her body and she needed to know now. But every time she begged and pleaded for Cas to come, there was no answer. Elena didn't want to heal herself anymore because she didn't want to become inhuman. That was the last thing she wanted.

It didn't help that the brothers were falling apart before her eyes. They liked to pretend that it wasn't happening but Elena could see right through their act just like they could probably see through hers. Dean was tossing and turning throughout the night and sneaking whiskey when he thought the other two weren't looking. Sam was always distant and disappearing for hours at night when he thought that Elena and Dean were fast asleep. They were quite the group and part of Elena wondered if this, all these things they were trying to hide from the other two, was why they worked so well together. None of them demanded to know what was happening with the other because they knew that they could easily have the tables turned on them. Yes, they were falling apart. Something had to be done.

* * *

"All right, so, where do we go from here?" Dean said once Elena returned to the table, no sign of distress on her face.

"I'm not sure. Uh, looks like it's been pretty quiet lately. No signs of demon activity, no omens or portents I can see." Sam said, scrolling around on his laptop.

"That's good news for once." Elena said, smiling at them as she sipped at a glass of water.

"Yeah, just the typical smattering of crank UFO sightings and one possible vengeful spirit. Here, check this out. Uh... up in Concrete, Washington, eyewitness reports of a ghost that's been haunting the showers of a women's health facility." Dean choked on the beer he was drinking and Elena rolled her eyes.

No matter what, no matter how devoted they were to one another and how much Elena knew he would never cheat on her, he was still the same perverted guy who got a slew of pornographic images when thinking of the women's showers.

"The victim claims that the ghost threw her down a flight of stairs. I can see you're very interested." Sam said, looking at Dean.

"Women, showers. We got to save these people." The older brother said, nodding at them both.

* * *

When they gathered up their things in the motel and packed up the Impala, Sam took the backseat to lie down as Elena sat next to Dean in the front seat. She was leaning against him as he drove, her hands fiddling with the stations on the radio, much to his displeasure.

"The box of tapes is right there." he whined, pointing at the floor of the car.

"And I want to see if there's something better on the radio." Elena replied softly, finding a song that she recognized and smiling when she stopped on it.

"What have I said about Journey?" Dean said, turning to narrow his eyes at her.

"Unless it's 'Wheel in the Sky', you're not interested." She replied, reciting one of his many rules about music.

"And this is not 'Wheel in the Sky', so…" he said, reaching out to change it.

Elena stopped him, getting an idea that would make him suddenly like two Journey songs. Her hand laced through his and pulled it back. She turned her head to where her lips were at his ear.

"You make me weep." She sang in a soft, breathy voice.

He shuddered when her breath hit his ear.

"I wanna die. Just when…" she trailed off, her hand that was holding his pulling to her bare thigh, as she was wearing a dress.

Her other hand went to the back of his neck, stroking it softly.

"… you said we'd try…" she murmured, slowly sliding his hand up her thigh.

His breathing hitched and he shifted uncomfortably as she could see his pants getting tighter

"Lovin…"

His hand reached her hip, touching her silky underwear.

"Touchin…" her lips brushed his earlobe, causing a soft moan to escape from his mouth.

"Squeezin…" she moved his hand closer to the apex of her thighs, smiling when he began to move it all on his own.

"Each other." Elena sang before she closed her lips around his earlobe and bit down softly.

He let out a deep groan and swerved dramatically on the highway that was empty besides the Impala. Sam sat up with a surprised cry as Elena smiled deviously.

"What the hell?" Sam snapped, looking around with shock.

"Um…" Dean said, unable to formulate any words as Elena pulled his hand out from under her dress and held it in her lap, putting her head on his shoulder innocently.

"Dude, watch where you're driving." Sam sighed, lying back down to go to sleep.

"How do you feel about Journey now?" she whispered, stroking his hand with the tips of her fingers.

"You're evil!" he hissed back, but she noticed that he didn't switch it off of the song.

* * *

When they reached the town of Concrete, Washington, Dean dropped Sam off at the restaurant to talk to the woman who was attacked by the ghost in the showers. Then they went to the fintess center to look around there. As they walked inside, they got many curious looks at their state of dress. It wasn't all that appropriate for the gym. Elena was wearing a long sleeved burgandy sweaterdress with black tights and black high heeled over the knee boots. Her hair was down and curly. Dean was wearing a regular business suit.

"Can I help you?" a buff man asked, walking up to them with a critical gaze.

"Yes sir, we just moved to this town and we are looking around for the best gym to join." Dean said with an easy smile.

"This is the only gym in town other than the YMCA." The man scoffed.

"Well we're seeing if we like you better than the YMCA." Dean said through gritted teeth, already annoyed.

Elena let out a nervous laugh as they glared at each other.

"He's not telling you everything. He is really doing this for me. I am very OCD and I like to look everywhere before I can even consider joining a gym. I am very picky." She said, smiling over at Dean.

"Oh." The gym owner said, looking Elena up and down appreciatively before meeting her eyes again.

"I just want to look at your locker rooms. That is where I really need to feel comfortable, you know?" Elena said, stepping forward to smile at him.

"Of course, they're right this way." he said, gesturing to the doors that were in the corner.

"Oh I can find my own way. Honey, how about you ask about the weights. I know how much you love those." She said with a smile back at Dean before she walked off.

When she got into the women's locker room, she dug around in her purse until she found the EMF device. She got more than a few strange looks as she walked around with the thing in her hand, peeking around corners hesitantly. When she finished making the lap around the locker room, she frowned down at the device before shutting it off. There wasn't a single indication of a ghost. When she walked back outside, she found Dean still standing exactly where she'd left him, glaring at the other man. She hurried up to them and arranged her face into a panicked look.

"We have to leave, now." She said, trying to sound breathless.

"Is there something wrong, ma'am?" the man asked with an alarmed look.

She looked back and arranged her face into a disgusted scowl.

"There is mold in your showers." She hissed, sounding as traumatized as she could.

* * *

Dean was still laughing at her performance as they stood outside of the gym leaning against the car and waiting for Sam to show up. Elena looked out at the line-up of trees at the edge of the forest. Dena was flipping through the local newspaper.

"Hey, look at this." he said, holding the paper out to her.

"So?" she asked as she read, 'Local Man Wins $168M Lottery'.

"That's a lot of money." Dean shrugged.

"Well, you pick up anything?" Sam asked as he walked up to them.

"No EMF in the shower or anywhere else." Elena replied.

"This house is clean." Dean said dramatically, folding the newspaper up and throwing it into the Impala.

"Yeah. I'm not surprised. I kind of got the feeling back there that crazy pushed Mrs. Armstrong down the stairs." Sam said, referring to the woman who was pushed down the stairs.

They were distracted from talking anymore as they walked down the sidewalk towards the town square to get something to eat before they left town. Three young boys were chasing a fourth one, who looked terrified.

"Come on, guys, get him!" One of the boys shouted.

"I got him! I got him!" another boy yelled triumphantly.

"Run, Forrest, run!" Dean yelled after them, causing Elena to hit him over the chest.

She was interrupted from berating him when they noticed a man arguing with a police officer on the pier.

"How the hell was I supposed to get a look at it? It grabbed me from behind and threw me into a tree!" the man said dramatically, pointing to a spot on his head that was bleeding.

"Something's going on." Dean said, looking at the two men.

"Yeah, okay, Gus. I understand you got shook up. Anyone would be. But don't you think it… don't you think it had to be a bear?" the police officer said, sounding skeptical.

"I know a damn bear track when I see one! This thing didn't leave bear tracks! Its feet were huge!" Gus exclaimed.

"Now, Gus..." the police officer sighed.

"It was Bigfoot, Hal… the Bigfoot!" the man said, causing Elena, Dean, and Sam to exchange wide-eyed looks.

"Gus, you're not talking sense here." Hal the police officer said calmly.

"There's a Bigfoot out there, damn it, and he's a son of a bitch!" Gus said, shaking his head.

Elena, Sam, and Dean finally reached the two and Dean and Sam pulled out their ID's.

"Excuse us. FBI." Sam said, showing them the badges.

"What?" the police officer asked gruffly.

"Yes, sir. We're here about the... that." Sam said, gesturing to Gus.

"About Bigfoot?" Hal asked, scoffing.

"That's right. Sir, can you tell me exactly where this happened?" Dean said.

"Yes, I can." Gus nodded, looking relieved as he launched into the story of what happened.

After he finished telling them that he was hunting and was attacked from behind by a giant animal that had to be Bigfoot, they walked away with equally confused faces.

"There's only one thing to do." Dean said.

Elena looked at him.

"We're goin' Bigfoot hunting." He nodded.

She made a face and looked down at her feet.

"In these boots?" she whined.

Both brothers stared at her with equally unimpressed looks.

"I'll put on my flat boots." She sighed, opening the trunk to retrieve them out of her duffle bag as well as a jacket to protect her dress and a winter hat to keep her ears warm in the brisk air.

* * *

"What the hell's going on in this town? First there's a ghost that's not real, and now a Bigfoot sighting?" Dean said as they walked through the woods.

Elena was sidestepping logs and ducking under branches while Dean and Sam were stepping on everything and slapping the branches aside, sometimes trying to hit each other every once in a while much to her amusement. They were all holding guns of different sizes. Elena had a simple handgun while Sam was carrying a full-sized shotgun and Dean was carrying a sawed-off gun.

"Well, every hunter worth his salt knows Bigfoot's a hoax." Sam said, glaring at Dean when a branch got caught in his hair.

"Well, maybe somebody's pumping LSD into the town water supply." Dean suggested.

Elena stopped short when she saw something on the ground.

"Hey, guys." She said, staring down at it with wide eyes.

They walked back to her and stared down at it as well.

"Okay. What do you suppose made that?" Dean asked, sounding stumped.

"That, uh... is a big foot." Sam nodded, clearing his throat.

"Okay." Dean said, looking around before they followed the tracks.

They finally came out of the woods and found a liquor store that looked empty and broken into. They walked inside to see much of the contents smashed, as if something was going through it to find something in particular.

"So, what… Bigfoot breaks into a liquor store, jonesing for some hooch? Amaretto and Irish cream. He's a girl-drink drunk." Dean said, chuckling.

Elena glanced back to see him sliding a bottle off of a shelf and into his jacket. She sighed and shook her head, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say.

"Hey. Check this out." Sam said, causing the two of them to walk over.

"He took the whole porno rack? Well, I'll say it again. What the hell is going on in this town?" Dean said, looking around with confusion.

They walked out of the story and slowly sat on a bench with Elena in the middle. They remained quiet for about two minutes, all thinking as hard as they could.

"I got nothing." Dean shrugged.

"It's got to be a joke, right? Some big-ass mother in a gorilla suit?" Sam said, looking at them.

"Or it's a Bigfoot. You know, and he's some kind of a alcoholo-porno addict. Kind of like a deep-woods Duchovny." Dean suggested, causing both of them to stare at him with raised eyebrows.

They were distracted by a little girl who rode by on a bike. She had a basket sitting on the back and, when she hit a bump, a magazine fell out of the back. Dean stood and picked the magazine up off of the ground.

"A little young for busty Asian beauties." He said, turning to show it to them.

Elena stood and walked quickly down the street to where the girl disappeared with Sam and Dean following her. They watched as she dropped the basket off and then got back on her bike to ride away. When they walked up to the basket to see that it was full of alcohol and porn along with a 'sorry' note on top, they looked at the little girl with confusion.

"I say that's our box of breadcrumbs." Dean said, taking off to follow her.

When they arrived at the home with the bike discarded in the front yard, they walked up to the front door to knock on it.

"Hello?" the little girl asked as she opened the door.

"Hello! Um, could we... you know what? Are your parents home?" Sam asked.

"Nope." She shook her head, looking up at them innocently.

"No." Sam said, looking at Elena and Dean for help.

No. Um... have you seen a really, really furry..." Dean began gesturing.

"Is he in trouble?" the little girl cried, panicked all of the sudden.

"No. Not at all. We just… we wanted to make sure he was okay." Elena said, smiling as she bent over to get on the girl's level.

"Exactly." Dean confirmed from behind her.

"He's my teddy bear. I think he's sick." The little girl said sadly.

"Oh! You know what? That's amazing. Because do you know what we are?" Elena said, gesturing to herself and the brothers.

"What?" the little girl asked.

"We're teddy bear doctors." She said with a grin.

"Really? Can you please take a look at him?" the little girl asked pleadingly, looking up at Sam and Dean.

"Sure." Sam nodded.

"Sure. Yeah." Dean agreed.

"I'm Elena, this is Sam and Dean." She said, holding her hand out to the little girl.

"I'm Audrey." She said, shaking Elena's hand before gesturing for them to come inside.

They walked up the stairs with Audrey leading.

"He's in my bedroom. He's pretty grumpy." She explained before she knocked on the door.

"Teddy? There's some nice doctors here to see you." she called, opening the door slowly.

All of their eyes widened when a very large, very drunk teddy bear was revealed watching the television.

"Close the friggin' door!" the teddy bear shouted, causing them to all take a step back.

Audrey closed the door and turned to look at them. None of them said a word, their eyes wide and their brains searching to try to figure out what the hell was happening.

"See what I mean?" the little girl sighed, sounding frustrated.

Sam and Dean simply looked at each other over Elena's head, who was still staring at the door.

"All right… um… Audrey how did this happen?" she finally worked up the nerve to speak.

"All I ever wanted was a teddy which was big, real, and talked. But now he's sad all the time… not 'ouch' sad, but ouch-in-the-head sad… says weird stuff, and smells like the bus." Audrey said with a disgusted look.

"Um, little girl..." Dean said hesitantly.

"Audrey!" she sighed with exasperation, causing Dean to look taken aback for a moment.

"Audrey. How exactly did your teddy become real?" he asked.

"I wished for it." the little girl shrugged.

"You wished for it?" Sam questioned

"At the wishing well." she nodded, moving out of the way as Dean leaned forward to open the door again.

Him, Sam, and Elena all leaned in to look at the giant teddy bear again. He was watching the television.

"Look at this. You believe this crap?" he asked, chuckling with no amusement as he looked at them.

"Not really." Dean said, looking at the teddy bear up and down.

"It is a terrible world. Why am I here?!" Teddy demanded, looking up at the ceiling.

"For tea parties!" Audrey exclaimed from outside of the door, stamping her foot.

"Tea parties? Is that all there is?" the teddy bear asked as the sound of gunfire emanated from the television.

They all turned to walk out of the room with their eyes even wider than before.

"Audrey, give us a second, okay?" Sam said, causing her to nod at them as they faced away from them.

"Okay. Are we... Should we... Uh, are we gonna kill this teddy bear?" he whispered.

"How? Do we shoot it, burn it?" Dean hissed.

"I don't know. Both?" Sam shrugged.

"How do we even know that's gonna work? I don't want some giant, flaming, pissed-off teddy on our hands."

"Don't you think that we should figure out how this happened? Maybe if we figure that out, we can find a way to reverse it." Elena suggested.

The brothers look at her before nodding. She turned back to the little girl, who was waiting patiently.

"Audrey, where are your parents?" she asked.

"My mom wished they were in Bali, so I think they're in Bali." Audrey said simply, as if it was entirely normal.

"Okay, well... I'm really sorry to have to break this to you, but... your bear is sick. Yeah, he's… he's got..." Sam trailed off.

"Lollipop disease." Dean suggested, grinning at her.

"Lollipop disease." Sam agreed, mimicking the fake smile as Elena rolled her eyes at them.

"It's not uncommon for a bear his size. But, see, it's… it's really contagious." Dean explained.

"Audrey is there a grown-up that you can stay with for a couple of days while we try to make Teddy better?" Elena asked, walking forward to crouch before her and put her hand on her shoulder.

"Mrs. Hurley lives down the street." Audrey said.

"Perfect." She nodded, smiling at the little girl.

"Good, yeah, good. Uh, we'd like you to stay there for a few days, okay?" Sam asked.

"Okay." Audrey nodded, agreeing with them quite easily.

"Oh, and, Audrey? Where is this wishing well?" Dean asked.

"At the Chinese restaurant in the town square, Lucky Chin's." She said.

"Thank you, Audrey. Now let's get you over to Mrs. Hurley's house, okay? Do you want to pack some clothes?" Elena asked, smiling down at her as she stood.

Audrey nodded before running into her room.

"This thing is freaking me out." Dean hissed as they heard the teddy bear's sobbing increase from inside the room.

"Yeah." Elena agreed.

* * *

As they walked into the restaurant, they caught sight of a little boy throwing a coin into the fountain before running off. She recognized him as the boy who was being chased by the bullies earlier.

"Think it works?" Dean asked as they walked up to the fountain.

"Got a better explanation for teddy back there?" Sam asked, shrugging as he stared down at the coins underneath the water.

"Well, there's one way to find out." Dean said, pulling a quarter out of his pocket.

"What are you gonna wish for?" Elena asked.

"Shh!" he whispered as he threw the coin in.

"Not supposed to tell." He said as the water splashed a bit.

Elena let out a laugh as the bell to the restaurant door rang.

"Somebody order a footlong Italian with jalapeño?" A man asked and they all turned to stare at him.

"That'd be me." Dean said, walking forward with his hand raised as he dug through his pockets for money.

Elena rolled her eyes along with Sam as they walked forward to find a table. Dean joined them and immediately dug into his sandwich.

"I think it works. That was pretty specific." He said, looking satisfied about the food.

"The teddy bear, the sandwich..." Sam listed.

"Mm. I'm guessing this." Dean said, shoving the newspaper towards them to show the lottery winner again.

"I'm guessing that." Elena said with raised eyebrows, pointing at a mismatched couple that were making out furiously at the next table.

The woman was quite attractive and the man was a bit nerdy looking.

"Well, that definitely goes on the list. What are we supposed to do, huh? Stop people's wishes from coming true? I mean, it sounds like kind of a douche-y thing to do." Dean said, his mouth full of his sandwich.

"Yeah, maybe. But come on, man. When has something like this ever come without a price tag? And usually a deadly one." Sam reminded him.

"I don't know. It's a damn good sandwich." Dean said with a grin that faded when he saw Sam and Elena's unimpressed faces.

"All right. Fine. We'll put a hold on the wishing till we figure out what's going on." he said, putting the sandwich down as he wiped his mouth.

"Uh, sir. I'm sorry. We don't allow people to eat outside food here." The owner of the restaurant said, walking up to them with a stern expression.

"Well, I am certainly not gonna eat the inside food here. Health department." Dean said without missing a beat as he showed him the badges. "You, my friend, have a rat infestation. We're gonna have to shut this place down under emergency hazard code 56C."

"Rats?!" the owner exclaimed, looking panicked before he shouted for everyone to leave the restaurant.

Fifteen minutes later they were standing over the drained fountain while Dean crouched down and swept his hand over the coins.

"Typical fountain, plaster Buddha. Nothing I can see." He said, inspecting every inch of the fountain.

"Yes, nothing. We keep a clean place here." The owner said, nodding his head.

"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave during the preliminary investigation, okay? Thank you." Sam said as Dean stood up.

"Oh, come on. Aren't you a little bit tempted?" Dean asked as he tossed Sam a coin.

Sam laughed, shaking his head. "No. Wouldn't be real. I wouldn't trust it." he said, handing the coin back to Dean.

"I don't know. That bear seemed pretty real." Dean shrugged, holding the coin out to Elena in an offering, who shook her head.

"Yeah." Sam sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Come on, if you could wish yourself back, you know, before it all started... think about it. You'd be some big yuppie lawyer with a nice car and a white picket fence." Dean said, smiling at Sam but Elena could see a hint of curiousity behind his suggestion.

"Not what I'd wish for." Sam said, looking anywhere but at his brother.

"Seriously?" the older brother scoffed.

"It's too late to go back to our old lives, Dean. I'm not that guy anymore." Sam said.

Elena shifted uncomfortably before kneeling down to look at all of the coins that were in the fountain.

"All right, well, what then? Hmm? What would Sammy wish for?" Dean said, sounding as though he was challenging his brother.

"Lilith's head on a plate. Bloody." Sam said simply.

They all remained silent for a moment as Elena sifted through the coins.

"What is that?" she murmured, finally noticing something odd on a coin.

Sam and Dean kneeled next to her to take a look at it.

"Some kind of old coin. I don't recognize the markings." Sam said, peering down at it.

Dean reached out, trying to pick up the coin. It didn't budge.

"Damn." He grunted, sounding frustrated.

"Lift with your legs." Sam and Elena said at the same time, much to their shared amusement.

"Is that little mother welded on there? Huh." Dean snapped, giving up and glaring down at the offending coin.

A few minutes later, Dean came back into the restaurant from the car carrying a crowbar and a hammer.

"Hey, hey, hey, what is this?! You are gonna break my fountain!" the owner exclaimed.

"Sir, I don't want to slap you with a 44/16, but I will." Sam threatened, raising an eyebrow at the owner until the man gave up and walked away.

"Thank you." Sam said.

"I got an idea." Dean said, bending down with the pronged end of the hammer and attempting to budge the coin from the fountain.

The hammer snapped in half and they all stared at it with surprise as the owner of the restaurant laughed at them.

"Dammit!" Dean snapped, throwing the other end of the hammer down and crossing his arms with annoyance.

"Coin's magical." Sam said, nodding at Dean, who glared up at him.

"Boy, I'd say. I think it's hoodoo that's protecting the well. I don't think we can destroy this." he said, kicking the fountain.

Suddenly Sam looked as though something dawned on him. He bent down with a piece of paper and a pencil and traced the design of the coin with it. Then he handed the paper to Elena.

"All right, here. You two got to look into this." he said before he turned to walk out of the restaurant.

"Where you going?" Dean called after him.

"Something just occurred to me." Sam replied before heading out of the door.

* * *

Seeing as Sam took the Impala, Dean and Elena were stuck with walking back to the motel. They walked hand in hand down the street until they saw a group of boys walk by with the little boy who made the wish chasing them.

"You better run!" the boy said as he chased them, making Elena and Dean stop short to stare at him with confusion.

"You got a problem, mister?" he demanded, glaring at Dean.

"What? No." Dean said wth a confused look.

The boy nodded once before running away. Elena moved to keep walking when Dean stopped her, placing a hand on his stomach and wincing.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

He nodded his head and continued to shuffle along the sidewalk. When they arrived at their room and Elena opened the door with the key, Dean ran past her and into the bathroom. She heard him throwing up and made a disgusted face as she followed him. She found him hunched over the toilet with his face pale and his hands shaking.

"I don't feel good." He grumbled, leaning over to throw up again.

Elena sighed and grabbed a washcloth, wetting it with cold water and pressed it to his forehead as she flushed the toilet and let him lean back against her.

"You should go do the research. I'll be fine." He sighed, pressing his hand over hers to take the washcloth away.

* * *

Elena kissed his cheek and told him to call her if he needed her as she turned to go research on Sam's computer. She was pretty positive that it had something to do with the wishes.

Thirty minutes later, Sam walked in while Dean was still in the bathroom hunched over the toilet. Elena was sitting at the desk finishing up her research.

"I was right. Perverted teenager wished that he could turn himself invisible so he could spy on women in the showers." Sam said.

"Dean? You all right?" he called when they heard him throwing up once again.

"He's been throwing up since we got back." Elena said, glancing at the bathroom.

"The wishes turn bad, Sam. The wishes turn very bad." Dean groaned from inside the bathroom.

"The sandwich, huh?" Sam said with a grimace.

"The coin was Babylonian. It's cursed. I found some fragments of a legend. The serpent is Tiamat, which is the Babylonian god of primordial chaos. I guess their priests were working some serious black magic." Elena explained as she closed the computer.

"They made the coin?" Sam asked, sitting across from her.

"Yeah, to sow the seeds of chaos. Whoever tosses a coin in the wishing well, makes a wish, it turns on the well. Then it starts granting wishes to all comers." Elena nodded.

"But the wishes get twisted. You ask for a talking teddy..." Sam said.

"You get a bipolar nut job." Dean said weakly from the doorway, still looking pale and sickly.

"And you get E. coli." Sam said.

"This thing has turned more than one town upside down over the centuries. It's even wiped a few off the map. One person gets their wish, it's trouble, but everybody gets their wish..." Elena trailed off as she jumped up to help Dean sit on the bed.

"It's chaos." Sam said.

Elena nodded as she helped Dean lie down with a pillow under his head.

"Any way to stop it?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. One way. We got to find the first wisher. Whoever dropped the coin in and made the first wish, they're the only ones who can pull it back out and reverse the wishes. So for now, we've got a couple of dreams come true, but once the word gets out about the well, things are just gonna get crazier and crazier." Elena said, standing up to face Sam with her arms crossed over her chest.

* * *

She couldn't sleep. The bruise on her ribs was driving her insane and there was also the fact that Dean was obviously having a nightmare beside her. She was sitting up with her hair up in a ponytail and her arms wrapped around her knees that were pressed to her chest. Sam was fast asleep on the other bed and she was glad to see that he was actually there that night. She'd been sitting there for hours just looking around. It was about three in the morning. Finally, she slid out of bed and pulled on a pair of tennis shoes and a hooded sweatshirt over her yoga pants and long-sleeved shirt. She grabbed the motel key and a few bobby pins, her headphones, and a coin before slipping out of the motel room and into the night.

She pulled the hood over her her head and plugged her headphones into her phone and turned on the music before sliding it into her hoodie pocket and taking off jogging through the darkness. It didn't take her long to reach the town square and she looked around before walking over to the alley behind the Chinese restaurant and bending down at the back door. After being with Sam and Dean long enough, it was easy to pick a lock. She slid inside the unprotected restaurant, not bothering to switch on any lights, and walked over to the fountain. After staring down at it for a moment, she finally sat down on the floor next to it, pulling out the coin to turn it over in her hand. Did she make the wish? Did she dare to ask for Castiel to be brought here to her so that he would finally tell the truth?

She knew that it would work, of course it would work. Everything else had worked for everyone else. Why would she be any different? But the one thing that kept her from throwing that coin into the fountain was the consequences. She had no idea what they could be. It could be as little as Castiel getting angry with her or as large as her destroying the entire town by accident. She couldn't live with the consequences if she got people killed. So she sat there, holding the coin in her hand. The music continued to blast in her ears as she leaned back against the fountain. How was she supposed to fix things if she didn't even know half of what she was fixing?

* * *

"Dean, wake up!" Sam's voice broke the silence of the motel.

"What? I'm up. What?" Dean said, sitting up straight as he looked around wildly.

"Elena isn't here. I have no idea where she is." Sam said, sitting on his bed while also looking around.

They both stood to walk to the door when it opened and she came walking inside with a bag and a tray of three coffees in her hands. She immediatley stopped short when she saw their faces. Did they know that she'd been gone since early that morning?

"Where were you?" Dean asked, looking at her outfit.

"Getting breakfast." She said simply, holding up the bag and coffee as she crossed the room to set it on the table.

They walked forward and she handed them the bag of pastries to sort through.

"So where do we start on this coin thing?" she asked as she stripped the hoodie off.

Neither of the brothers missed the coin that fell onto the ground when she did so.

"Well… we got teddy bear, uh, lottery guy, invisible pervert guy. They all must have wished sometime in the last two weeks. But who wished first, and how are we supposed to know who else wished for what when?" Sam asked as Dean read through the newspaper again.

"Well, it helps when they announce it in the paper. Goes back a month." Dean said, holding the paper out for them to read.

"Wesley Mondale and Ms. Hope Lynn Casey have announced their surprise engagement." Sam said.

"Ah, true love." Dean sighed.

"Best lead we got." Sam shrugged.

* * *

Elena looked around as she walked up the steps to the charming little house. She was the one who got to get their invitation into the house, using the future bride. She was wearing a black and white dress with a skinny black belt as well as a black wool coat with the buttons undone and a pair of black and white tweed pattern heels. When she reached the door, she rang the doorbell. Sam and Dean would be along in a few minutes but they were at Lucky Chin's making sure that nobody made any more wishes.

"I'll get it. Wes!" she heard a woman yell from inside a few moments before the door ripped open.

"Hello, I'm Heather Covington. I'm a wedding planner. Your fiance called me to come help with the plans." She said with a big smile, reaching out her hand.

"Oh my God! Wes! You didn't tell me that you called a wedding planner!" the woman, Hope, exclaimed, darting forward to hug Elena before dragging her inside.

"Huh?" Wes asked as they walked into the living room.

He looked at Elena with a confused look.

"You're the best! Mmm!" Hope said, hugging him tightly before turning to run out of the room.

"Ah! I'm gonna go get my folders."

"Mr. Mondale, how are you?" Elena said with a smile, walking forward to look at the decorations on the wall.

"Who are you? I didn't call a wedding planner." Wes said.

"Doesn't matter who I am. What matters is what I know. So… you're coin collector?" she asked, noticing a few tribal coins in a display with one of them missing.

"Oh. Yeah. My... grandfather gave them to me." the man said, sounding nervous.

"Did you happen to lose one of those coins lately?" he looked confused.

"Oh, and by lose, I mean drop into a wishing well at Lucky Chin's and make a wish on it?" she said, turning to face him.

"No, I… I don't know what you're, uh, talking about." Wes said, shaking his head.

"Hmm." She murmured skeptically.

Hope came back in with a bunch of papers and folders in her hands, inviting Elena to sit on the couch with her.

"Okay, now. I have a lot of ideas, but, you know, we don't have all the money in the world. Wes is between jobs right now. Means more time for me. You know, I'm thinking a Japanese-y ikebana kind of thing." She explained.

"I can see it, it will be a beautiful day." Elena said, smiling at the poor spellstruck girl.

The doorbell rang and Elena looked up at Wes.

"Those will be my assistants. Can you let them in?" she asked Wes.

He nodded nervously before turning to walk out of the room. He came back in following Sam and Dean, who were back in their suits.

"Oh goodness! Does anyone want anything to drink? I feel like I'm being such a bad hostess." Hope said, jumping up and smoothing down her shirt.

"Water would be great, Miss Casey." Elena said with a smile.

"Aren't you the guys from the health department?" Wes asked once she left the room.

"Yeah. And florists on the side." Sam said.

"Plus FBI. And on Thursdays, we're teddy bear doctors." Dean listed off as Elena rolled her eyes.

"Huh?" Wes asked questioningly as Hope walked back in with water for everyone.

"Yeah. So, Hope, uh, tell us how you two lovebirds met." Sam said.

"Oh, best day of my life." Hope said with a grin.

"I bet." Dean nodded, sipping at his water.

"Yeah! It's the funniest thing. We both grew up here, but I never really knew who he was. Not by name anyway. Until one day last month, it was like I just saw him for the first time. He was just... glowing. Oh, just glowing." She said, a hand over her heart as she spoke.

"Uh, babe, can you… can you get me some coffee?" Wes asked, wanting to stop her talking.

"Yes. Yeah." She nodded before walking to him to kiss him over and over.

They all grimaced as it continued to for several seconds.

"Wes, we know. So tell us the truth." Sam said as soon as she went into the kitchen.

Wes sighed and sat in a chair.

"My.. my grandfather found the coin in north Africa, you know, World War II. And, uh, he brought it back. He, um, he said it was a real wish-granting coin, but that nobody should ever use it. Um... it was all I had, and when he died, I thought, 'Well, you know what? Why not give the coin a shot?'" Wes shrugged.

"Yeah, well, now you're gonna wish it back." Sam instructed.

"Oh." Wes chuckled. "No, I'm not."

"If you don't stop it, something bad's gonna happen." Elena warned him.

"Something bad. Like us." Dean nodded.

"We really wish you'd come with us." Sam said.

Wes looked around at them as he realized that he didn't really have much of a choice.

* * *

Dean was driving with Elena in the front and Dean and Sam in the back.

"I don't get it. So, my wish came true. Why does that have to be a bad thing?" Wes shrugged.

"Because the wishes go south, Wes. Your town is going insane." Sam informed him.

"Come on. You're gonna sit there and tell me that your relationship with Hope is functional, that it's what you wished for?" Dean demanded.

"I wished she would love me more than anything." Wes defended himself.

"Yeah? And how is that going? That seem healthy to you?" Elena asked, a little disgusted by how he took away the girl's choice in the matter.

"Well, it's a hell of a lot better than when she didn't know I was alive." The man snapped.

"You're not supposed to get what you want, man, not like this. Nobody is. That's what the coin does. It takes your heart's desires and it twists it back on you. You hear of the whole, uh, 'be careful what you wish for'?" Dean said, glaring back at Wes.

"Did we just hit something?" Sam asked after it sounded and felt like something glanced off of the side of the car.

"I didn't see anything." Dean said.

Elena let out a giggle and they turned to stare at her like she was crazy.

"What if it was invisible pervert guy?" she laughed, biting her lip as she looked over at Dean, who couldn't keep the smile off of her face.

"Careful what you wish for." Wes said mockingly. "You know who says that? Good-looking jerks like you guys, the ones who've got it so easy because you happen to be handsome."

"Easy?" Sam and Dean questioned at the same time.

"Yeah. Women… women look at you, right? They notice you. I mean, I would be a lot of money that this girl… whoever she is… is with one of you, right?"

Elena pursed her lips and shrugged as Dean casted his eyes out of the window.

"That's what I thought." Wes said, looking between them.

"Believe us, we do not have it easy." Sam said.

"We are miserable. We almost never get what we want. In fact, we have to fight tooth and nail just to keep whatever it is we got." Dean added.

"But you know what? Maybe that's the whole point, Wes." Elena threw in.

"Yeah, people are people 'cause they're miserable bastards, 'cause they never get what they really want." Dean said.

"Right, yeah, you get what you want, you get crazy." Sam said.

"Take a look at Michael Jackson, hmm? Or Hasselhoff." Dean suggested.

"You know what? Hope loves me now… completely. And it's awesome. Besides, look around. Where's all this, uh, insanity you guys were talking about?" Wes said as they pulled up to Lucky Chin's and climbed out.

Elena grabbed his arm and whirled him around to see four boys that were crowded into a car with the little boy from before standing beside it. He walked forward and easily lifted it, throwing it onto its side.

"Well, that should cover it." Dean nodded.

"Kneel before Todd! Kneel before Todd!" The little boy shouted, looking up at the sky with his arms spreaded out dramatically.

"I'll handle Todd. You get Wes to Lucky Chin's. Go!" he said, gesturing to Elena and Sam.

"You take him, I'll go with Dean." Elena said, slipping off her shoes and running forward to help Dean with the freakishly strong Todd.

"Right." Sam nodded, turning to take Wes into the restaurant.

"Hey, kid! Can I talk to you for a second?" Dean asked as they walked up to him.

Dean darted forward to stand between him and the suburban.

"Get out of my way!" Todd demanded, glaring at him.

"Okay. Hey, I can dig it, Todd. It… it's Todd, right? Look, I… I know the score. Okay? They're… they're bullying you." Dean nodded.

"Every day. Every day! You do not know what it's like!" Todd shouted, looking angry and hurt at the same time.

"No, no, I don't. But, you know, you're you and I'm me, so…" Dean chuckled and looked back at Elena, his smile fading when he saw her serious look."

"Couldn't stop them. I couldn't do anything. Then Audrey Elmer told me the wishing well worked." Todd ranted.

"Okay, okay. Look… look, I get it. They're… they're mean little jerks, huh? But they're not superhuman like you. You see, with great power comes great respon..." Dean was cut off by Todd punching him in the stomach and throwing him into a few garbage cans.

Elena sighed and walked forward, stopping the kid from approaching the car again.

"You need to stop." She said in a stern voice.

Todd launched at her and attempted to punch her too but she evaded the hit and grabbed his shirt, hauling him away from the car kicking and screaming. She turned in time to see Todd's nails connect with her leg and drag across them, leaving bloody scratch marks in their path. Elena hissed in pain and dropped him. Dean jumped up from the trashcans and ran over.

"Hey, kid! I didn't want to have to do this." he punched Todd, who didn't even move.

The little kid put his hand around Dean's throat and began choking him. Before Elena had a chance to react, the kid dropped his hand and looked at Dean with confusion. Dean sighed as he breathed deeply and looked back at Elena, who was pressing her hand over the bloody scratch marks on her leg.

"Okay. Follow my lead and you won't have a problem. Come on." he said, gesturing to Todd.

She watched as he acted terrified in front of the bullies, who were clambering out of the car.

"Okay, man, no more! No more, okay?" he said, scrambling backwards.

"I wouldn't mess with this kid any more if I were you." he warned the bullies before turning to run to Elena.

"Stay back!" They heard the bullies yell before turning to run off.

Dean stood in front of her and looked down at the wounds.

"Let's get you inside so you can heal it." he said, putting his arm around her torso.

She winced as he pressed right down on her bruise and shook her head as she turned away from him.

"I'm fine." She choked out.

On one hand, she really hated the pain that the bruise was causing her, but on the other hand, she knew that it meant she was still human. But it would be helpful if she could do a little better job of covering up the tears that it brought.

"Elena?" Dean asked, panicked.

"I'm fine." She repeated, turning to smile at him as she wiped away the tears.

He looked at her with concern but, just like they'd all been doing for the past month, he kept his mouth shut. Elena sighed heavily as they walked towards the restaurant to find Sam.

* * *

That night, Elena was in the bathroom of the motel room alone and stripping her dress off. She looked in the mirror and saw that the bruise on her ribs was all black and blue. A knock sounded on the door and she accidentally said "come in" before she could think about it. She dove for a towel to cover her body up but it was too late. Dean's gasp echoed around the bathroom and she winced, turning to face him.

"What the hell?" he demanded, not even paying attention to the fact that she was only in her undergarments as he turned her around to look at the bruise.

"It's not a big deal." She murmured, avoiding his eyes as he held her at arm's length.

"Elena, why haven't you healed this?" he asked, pulling her chin up so that she would look at him.

Her lower lip started trembling and her eyes filled with salty tears.

"Because it scares me. Every time I heal my body it changes. It becomes more… invincible. I don't feel pain as much anymore. I'm becoming something less than human so I've stopped healing myself." She cried softly.

Dean stared down at her for a moment before gathering her in his arms.

"I don't think that you're becoming less than human." He assured her.

"Of course I am, Dean. I can heal people. I am freakishly strong. I'm certainly not a normal human." She said, tears sliding down her cheeks as she pulled away.

"Did it ever occurred to you that your body just shuts down your ability to feel pain because it knows that if you felt all of the pain you should, your body would go into shock? I don't think you're becoming invicible. The same thing happens to me and Sam. Yeah, we still feel pain. But it's not near as bad. We just get used to it." Dean said.

"You think so?" Elena sniffled.

"Elena, we get tossed around like rag dolls and hit like punching bags. If we felt all of that pain, we'd never get out of bed." Dean chuckled.

She shrugged and let out a small laugh.

"Please heal yourself? I like seeing you in pain as much as you like seeing me and Sam in pain." Dean requested, staring down at her with pleading eyes.

She sighed and closed her eyes, gripping his hands as she concentrated. The warmth flowed through her body and she sighed with the sweet relief of it all. When they opened, she looked down to see that all of her bruises were gone.

"Now that's taken care of…" he trailed off, his hand sliding down her bare back to play with the waistband of her underwear.

Elena giggled as he leaned down to press his lips to hers.

"Dean!" she shrieked as he easily lifted her up onto the bathroom counter.

"What?" he murmured, standing between her legs as he kissed down her neck.

"Sam." She hissed.

"… is out getting us food." He finished her thought.

"Doesn't it worry you how much he disappears?" she asked, pulling his face away to look down at him.

He looked at her and sighed.

"Of course it worries me. I just don't know how to stop it or ask him about it. Sam hasn't exactly been sharing his feelings much lately." He said, his eyes falling down to the floor.

"I know. We'll figure out a way to talk to him, okay? Together." Elena said, wrapping her arms around his back.

Dean looked up at her and nodded.

"Together." He agreed.

Elena smiled and ducked her head down to kiss him once more.

"How long do you think he'll be gone?" she mumbled against his lips.

"Long enough." Dean replied.

Elena grinned and immediately yanked his shirt off before wrapping herself around him once more. Unfortunately, Dean's prediction was uncorrect as Sam had only gone to the restaurant next door to get food. He sighed and backed away from Elena to hand her his shirt. She laced her hand with his as he pulled her off of the counter and turned to walk out the door.

"Dean." She said softly, stopping him.

He turned to look back at her.

"We're going to have to talk about your nightmares too." Elena said, looking up at him with apologetic eyes.

He looked panicked for a moment. Then he slowly nodded, resigned to the fact as he'd seen it coming. They couldn't keep not talking about it. Something had to change. Something was going to change.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! **

**A few things:**

**1. Elena's outfits are, of course, on my profile.**

**2. Next chapter is the chapter with the siren, only I'm going to change it a little bit. Which means that Elena is going deep undercover in one of Dean's favorite places in the world (cue hot dirty scenes).**

**3. Review please!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to IgnitingFireworks, Dark Alana, Nyssandria, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, RHatch89, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, slayerdiaries, DrawingMyHeartOut, chiwi, TheElegantFaerie, neontreeslover and my two guests for reviewing! I love all of you and everyone who is reading so faithfully! Thank you so much!**

**A few things:  
**

**1. I cannot believe that we've made it to over 300 reviews. You are all absolutely fantastic! As a reward, if anyone has something they would like to see in the story (a scene or something), they can let me know. But I can also tell you that… wait for it… part of the explanation of Elena's powers/backstory is revealed in the next chapter! Maybe not all of it but at least most of it is. **

**2. I am almost at the end of season four and then, this part of the story ends. But don't worry, there will be a sequel and I am already planning it out! I already know the name and everything.**

**3. I love all of you!**

**4. There will be lemon-y stuff in this chapter.**

**5. Let me know if you want Dean and Elena to finally do the dirty deed (go all the way/do the dance with no pants/finally have sex) before this part of the story or if you want me to drag it out a bit longer. It's up to you!**

* * *

Elena sighed contentedly as she snuggled closer to Dean's warmth. His arms tightened around her and she smiled. He was just lying there. He wasn't tossing back and forth or muttering in his sleep. He wasn't having a nightmare. Her eyes slid open and she looked up at his face. He looked peaceful and that was the best that she could hope for. Ever since she'd actually forced him to talk about what was happening in his dreams, every sordid detail, he'd been a lot better. At first, he was convinced that she would be disgusted and run away from him even though she'd seen some parts of him being in hell.

"_It's pretty much just like you would have seen in your dreams. The blood, the torture, the screams echoing all around me only to realize that they're my screams. I always hear the hellhounds too. They're all growling, pacing the ground as if they're waiting for Alastair to throw them the remaining scraps of my body." Dean said, looking down at his hands._

"_And?" she asked, leaning forward to take his hands._

_His eyes flashed up to hers and he swallowed hard, squeezing her hands._

"_Dean, it's okay. There is nothing you can tell me…" she began._

"_Sometimes it's just blackness. I can't see anything but I can hear. I can hear every damn scream of ever soul that I tortured for ten years. I don't know how many poor bastards I tortured but I somehow memorized their screams, all of them." Dean said, his voice cracking a few times._

"_But that's not all, is it?" Elena asked._

_He shook his head, his eyes falling down to where their hands were connected. He gripped them tight as if he could keep her in place by holding her hands as tightly as he could. Elena didn't mind, simply remaining sitting across from him._

"_In the darkness, I can hear different voices. They're not screaming. It's Sam… or Dad… sometimes Mom… even Bobby… and…" he cut off._

"_And?" she pressed him to continue._

"_And you." he sighed, looking up at her._

"_What are we saying?" she asked._

_He let out a soft noise that might have been a sob._

"_That I'm disgusting. That you all hate me and will never forgive me for all that I've done, for all that I did in hell. You all tell me that I will turn back into the man I was in hell, that I am just pretending to be good, to be righteous." He said, his voice devastated._

_Elena sighed and launched forward, holding him in her arms as tightly as she could. _

"_You are a good man, Dean Winchester. I don't care what the hell your mind is telling you. I am telling you right now that you are righteous… you are good. You help people and you've helped me so much. I know that you've helped Sam more than either of you will admit just like he's helped you. I know that you will not turn into whatever you were in hell because you are better than that. You have me beside you and you have Sam and Bobby. I am not going to let anyone or anything change you into anything that you don't want to be." Elena reassured him, whispering the promise in his ear._

She sighed softly at the memory before reaching out her hand to tentatively trace the angles of his face. His forehead, his eyes, his cheekbones, his nose… finally his lips. Her fingers softly and gently slid over them.

"Yeah." Sam's voice from another room shattered the silence and Dean's eyes popped open.

He looked at her for a moment before turning to see that Sam wasn't in his bed. They both leaned up on their elbows to hear what was going on.

"Yeah, that's what I'm telling you. No storms, no bad crops, nothing." He said from the bathroom.

Neither Elena nor Dean said a word, both of them just listening to Sam's conversation.

"Yeah, okay. We'll keep looking. You keep looking too, OK?" Sam asked.

Elena reached out her hand, ready to pull Dean down to where it looked like they were sleeping.

"All right. Talk soon." Sam said before hanging up.

They both flopped onto the bed at the same time, Elena curling into Dean's chest as he wrapped his arms around her once more. They exchanged one wary glance before closing their eyes and pretending to sleep.

A few moments later, Sam walked in and stopped by the bed. Dean shifted forward when Sam poked his shoulder.

"Hey. Up and at 'em, kiddos." He said, sounding far too cheerful.

If they hadn't known he was hiding something before, they certainly knew it now. Dean sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes quite adorably in Elena's opinion.

"You're up early. What are you doing?" Dean grumbled, turning over to look at Sam.

"Nothing. I was in the can." Sam shrugged, sitting on his bed and leaning down to tie his shoes.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You want me to draw you a picture?" Sam laughed, looking up at Dean as Elena slid out of the bed and stretched out.

"Nah, I'll pass." Dean said, sounding annoyed as he also slid out of bed on Elena's side and pulled her into a hug, making her laugh and try to squirm her way out of it.

"Dean, we have to get ready. Sam is already beating down the door trying to get out of here." She giggled as he held her closely.

"Fine. You shower since I did last night." Dean said.

Elena nodded and turned to walk towards the bathroom.

"Found a job. Bedford, Iowa. Guy beat his wife's brains out with a meat tenderizer." Sam said, stopping her as she turned around to look at him.

"Yikes." Elena shuddered.

"And get this. Third local inside two months to gank his wife. No priors on any of 'em, all happily married." Sam informed them.

"Ahh. Sounds like Ozzie and Harriet." Dean commented, grabbing his bathroom bag out of his duffle.

"More like The Shining." Sam said, smirking down at his hands.

"All right, well I guess we'd better have a look." Dean said.

"After I take a shower." Elena reminded them, turning to walk in.

As was normal, as soon as she was stripped and in the hot shower, Dean came in and stood in front of the mirror. She peeked her head around the curtain to see that he was only in a pair of jeans that were sitting low on his hips. She smiled slyly at the view of his back and he spotted her in the mirror.

"Unless you want me to join you, stop lookin' at me like that." he warned her as he plugged in his electric razor.

"Hmm… there's an idea." She said with a wink before disappearing into the shower again.

As she lathered the shampoo into her long hair, she began humming. The humming quickly escalated into singing.

"Your lights are on… but you're not home." she said lightly, leaning her head back to wash the soap out. "Your mind… is not your own."

"Your heart sweats… your body shakes." She heard from outside of the shower and she grinned widely.

"Another kiss… is what it takes." She continued, leaning down to grab her conditioner.

"You can't sleep… you can't eat." Dean sang, sounding satisfied with the fact that he knew the lyrics despite the fact that he hardly ever listened to this song.

"There's no doubt… you're in deep." Elena said as she washed the conditioner out of her hair.

"Your throat is tight… you can't breath."

"Another kiss… is all you need." Elena twirled around to grab a washcloth and squirt pomegranate raspberry bodywash onto it.

"Oh you'd like to think that you're immune to this stuff… oh yeah." Dean sang as she let out a soft laugh and moved her body under the water to clear the soap off.

"It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough." she sang as she shut off the water and reached out to grab the towel material motel robe that was hanging outside of the shower.

It was barely wrapped around her body before the curtains were ripped aside and Dean reached in to yank her out of the shower and pull her close to his body. She cried out in surprise and her hands went to his biceps to steady herself.

"You know you're gonna have to face it…" he trailed off, smirking down at her.

"… you're addicted to love." she finished, grinning up at him.

His hand grabbed hers and he twirled her out and back in, causing her to shriek happily.

"You saw the signs… but you can't read." Dean sang as he danced them around the small bathroom.

"You're running at… a different speed." Elena laughed as they moved together.

"Your heart beats… in double time." Dean said as he backed up to open the bathroom door and twirl them out into the room.

"Another kiss… and you'll be mine!" Elena belted, throwing her head back as he picked her up and twirled her, his hand holding the robe down over her legs.

"Oh wow… I did not want to see that." Sam muttered from the table where he was sitting.

"You can't be saved." Dean continued singing and dancing with her, oblivious to his brother's protestations.

"Oblivion… is all you crave." Elena replied, also ignoring Sam's whining.

"If there's some…. left for you… you don't mind if you do."

"Whoa! You like to think that you're immune to this stuff… oh yeah!" Elena said, twirling away from Dean dramatically before coming back in the same fashion.

"It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough." Dean sang loudly.

"You know you're gonna have to face it you're addicted to love!" they belted together, laughing as their impromptu performance came to an end.

Sam began clapping sarcastically as they clasped hands and bowed dramatically. Then Dean twirled her into him once more and placed a soft kiss to her lips.

"You're amazing." He whispered.

"Mmm… so are you." she said, kissing his nose lightly before pressing a chaste kiss to his lips and disappearing into the bathroom with her clothes.

* * *

"Why does the PD keep sending you guys? I already said I don't want a lawyer." Mr. Benson said, glaring up at them.

"They're lining up the firing squad." Dean informed him, unbuttoning his suit coat as he sat down across from the man in the orange jumpsuit who killed his wife.

"I'm pleading guilty." He replied, his eyes falling to the table as he refused to look at them.

"All right, look, you don't want us to represent you, that's fine. In fact it's probably not a bad idea, between you and me. We just wanna understand what happened, that's all." Dean said, shrugging at him.

"Mr Benson. Please." Elena said, smoothing out her blue mid-thigh length dress out before sitting down.

Over the dress she was wearing a cropped jacket and black patent heels on her feet. Her hair was pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck.

"What happened was, I killed my wife. You wanna know why? Because she made plans without asking me." Benson said, his voice breaking a few times as he sounded emotional about it.

"Now when it happened, how did you feel? Disoriented, out of control?" Dean asked.

"Like something possessed you to do it?" Elena explained at the man's confused look.

"I knew exactly what I was doing. I was crystal clear." He said, staring at them as if he didn't understand why they were asking all of those questions.

"Then why'd you do it?" Dean questioned.

"I don't know. I loved her. We were happy." Benson sighed, rubbing his forehead as he spoke.

Dean looked at Elena and she nodded at him before he set a stack of papers on the table, tapping the bottom of the top paper.

"Nine G's. That's a hefty bill." Dean said, looking up at him.

"Where did you get that?" Benson asked, sounding panicked.

"Doesn't matter. We have it. See, certain charges, ones you don't want the wife to know about... they show up under shady names like 'M & C Entertainment'." Elena said, leaning forward as she crossed her arms.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he said, shaking his head stubbornly.

"Like dropping plastic at a nudie bar for instance." Dean said, causing the man's eyes to widen.

"We just wanna know the truth, Mr Benson." Elena assured him.

He stared between them, looking uncertain before he shook his head and sighed.

"Her name was Jasmine." He admitted.

"She was a stripper?" Elena asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Her name was Jasmine." Dean said, smirking at her as she rolled her eyes at him.

"I didn't mean for it to happen, I don't like to go to strip bars. My buddy was having a bachelor party, and there she was." Benson explained.

"Jasmine." Dean nodded.

"She came right up to me. And...I dunno, she was just...perfect. Everything that I wanted." The man shrugged.

"Well you pay enough and anybody will be anything." Elena said, a little disgusted with the whole idea.

"It wasn't about the money. It wasn't even about the sex. It was...I dunno. I...I don't know what it was. It's hard to explain." Benson stammered

"And your wife found out?" Dean asked.

"No, she never had a clue."

"Then why'd you kill her?" Elena questioned, her eyebrows knitting together.

"For Jasmine. She said we would be together forever. If...if only Vicki was..." Benson trailed off, not wanting to say it even though he had killed his wife for a stripper.

"Muertos." Dean murmured under his breath.

"Afterwards, me and Jasmine were supposed to meet and she never showed. I don't know where she lives, I don't know her last name, I don't even know her real first name! I'm an idiot." Benson said, shaking his head as he was humiliated by his actions.

"And you didn't think to tell this to the cops?" Elena asked.

"What for? The stripper didn't do it, I did it. And I know what I deserve. The judge doesn't give me the death sentence, I'll just do it myself. So that's why I don't want you defending me." Benson said decidedly.

"Fine." Dean said, standing up with Elena.

"Goodbye, Mr. Benson." Elena said, turning to walk out of the room with Dean trailing behind her.

As they walked out of the room, Elena got a sudden idea. It wasn't an ideal plan. In fact, it probably wasn't even a good idea. But it was the best idea she could think of so it had to be done.

"Can you drop me at the motel before you go get Sam from the hospital?" Elena asked.

"Sure, why?" Dean asked as they climbed into the Impala.

"Just need some alone… girl… time." Elena shrugged, hoping that would be enough.

If Dean knew what she was really doing, well he would either support her or try to stop her.

* * *

"Rough night?" Sam asked the woman sitting at the desk as he entered the office of Dr. Cara Roberts.

"Fun night. Rough day." She said with a wry grin, causing Sam to snigger softly.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked.

"Ahhh...yes. Um, I'm Special Agent Stiles, FBI. You Doctor Cara Roberts?" Sam asked.

"Far as I know." Cara said, smiling up at him as she reached her hand out to shake his.

"You do some work with the Sheriff's department?" he asked.

"Yeah, when I'm not slogging it through the ER. It's a small town. We multi-task." She nodded, leaning forward to talk to him.

"Well, I have some questions about a case. About several cases actually. Do you mind if I sit?" Sam asked, gesturing to the chair.

She motioned for him to sit down.

"Great. Adam Benson, Jim Wylie, and Steve Snyder." He listed as he pulled the chair out and sat down.

"Oh yeah, the men who killed their wives?" Cara nodded, turning her attention back to the chart she was working on as she still listened to Sam.

"You handled their work-ups, right?" Sam questioned.

"Autopsies for the wives and tox screens for the perps. Two-for-one special."

"You find anything?" he asked.

"Not really. I mean, cause of death on the women was pretty clear. There was nothing unusual in their systems." Cara shrugged.

"What about the husbands?"

"Can I... see your badge again?" she said, picking up her eyes as she leaned forward.

She looked closely at Sam's badge, then back at Sam, before sighing and leaning back.

"There was one thing, um, an anomaly in the blood work. And I remember thinking how strange it was that it showed up in all three of the men." She said.

"That what showed up?" Sam asked.

"Oxytocin. And their levels were crazy high." Cara explained.

"Ahh. Oxytocin?" he said, unsure of what exactly it was.

"Mm-hmm, it's a hormone that's produced during childbirth, lactation and sex." she said.

"Okay." Sam nodded.

"People call it the love hormone. Um, you know how it feels when you first fall in love. The whole weak in the knees, tattoo you on my chest thing? That's oxytocin. Of course it eventually fades and then you're stuck with every relationship ever. That and the painful regime of tattoo removal."

They shared a secretive smile before a knock sounded on the door. Sam looked up to see Dean and

"What'd I miss?" Dean

"Ahh, this is my partner, Agent Murdoch." Sam introduced them.

"I'm Doctor Roberts." Cara said, holding her hand out to him as well. "So, um, can I help you with anything else?"

"Uhh, sure, just one more thing. This chemical, this..." Sam trailed off.

"Oxytocin." Cara said, causing Dean to look as confused as Sam at the name of the chemical.

"Oxytocin. What would cause those high levels that you found?" Sam asked.

"Nothing that I've ever seen." Cara shrugged.

"Okay. That's it. Thanks Doc." Sam smiled warmly at her, something that didn't escape the notice of Dean, as he stood up.

As they moved to the door, Sam hesitated before turning back.

"By the way...try a greasy breakfast. Best thing for a hangover." He suggested.

"Watch it buddy, I'm the only M.D. here." Cara said, grinning at him as he smiled proudly.

Dean rolled his eyes as they walked out the door.

* * *

"Live nude girls?" Sam asked as they walked out of the hospital and towards the Impala.

"A club called 'The Honey Wagon'." Dean nodded.

"Did the other two guys have affairs too, with a stripper also known as Jasmine?" he asked.

"Yes and no. This is where it gets interesting. Each guy hooked up with a different chick." Dean explained.

"So, what? These girls all connected somehow?" Sam asked.

"Well, they all described their stripper in the same way, the exact same way. Perfect, and everything that they wanted." Dean explained as they continued walking.

"Yeah, at least until dream Barbie convinced them to murder their wives." Sam reminded him.

"There's that." Dean nodded.

"You know, it's almost like they were under some kinda love spell." Sam suggested.

"Sure seems that way." Dean agreed.

"Which caused them to become totally psychotic." Sam said.

"Absolutely."

"Hey, where's Elena?" he asked, looking around.

"She's at the motel for some reason." Dean shrugged, still confused by her strange behavior.

"You seem pretty cheery." Sam acknowledged with an interested look.

Dean smiled deviously over at his little brother.

"Strippers, Sammy. Strippers. We're on an actual case involving strippers. Finally." He sighed as if it was a long time coming.

* * *

Finding the strip club had been easy enough. Getting in was even easier. Then, sadly enough, getting a job there was the easiest thing she'd ever done in her life. All she had to say was the word 'job' and the owner was practically throwing outfits at her. Thin scraps of fabric that could barely cover anything were laid out before her on a counter in the back room where the women got ready. There were naked girls all around her in various stages of getting ready to either go outside and perform or go home after a long shift. She didn't mind the nudity. She was a woman and she hadn't ever really been shy about her body.

She'd gone skinnydipping with Caroline and Bonnie before, as well as half of the high school. It wasn't a big deal. What was a big deal was that she knew that Sam and Dean would eventually follow the breadcrumbs that led right to that strip club.

"You all right, hon?" a woman asked, walking up with a schoolgirl outfit on, complete with her hair in pigtails.

"I'm fine. Just… it's been a while." Elena sighed.

It wasn't untrue. It had been a while. She hadn't been an actual stripper but in a moment of drunken stupidity, she'd done a strip routine at Matt's sixteenth birthday party for the birthday boy. Though she really only stripped down to the swimsuit she was wearing underneath her shorts and tank top, it was the talk of the high school for the next few days. The good news was that apparently, there was a safety option in strip clubs. If a girl was uncomfortable, she could choose to keep most of her clothing on as she danced.

"You'll be fine. It's like riding a biker." The woman shrugged, leaning forward to check her lipstick in the mirror.

"A bike." Elena corrected her with wide eyes.

"Did I say biker? Well what can I say? I'm a whore." She said with a wink, slapping Elena's ass before walking away.

Elena jumped and looked in the mirror, wondering why the hell she thought this was a good idea.

* * *

"I'm looking for three girls. Jasmine, Aurora and Ariel!" Dean shouted over the music to the owner.

"You seriously think those names mean anything to me?" the man scoffed, looking around to make sure that his club was in order.

"One's a redhead about 5'9". The other one's Asian, about..." Dean began explaining.

"You have any idea how many girls I deal with? Fake names, fake hair, fake..."

"You gotta have some sort of paperwork. Cheque stubs. Some way to keep track of the strippers." Dean interrupted him, trying to keep his eyes on the man instead of wandering around the club.

"Please, exotic dancers. Independent contractors working for cash. I stay out of their hair, they stay out of what little I have left." He said, gesturing to his head.

"Three of your customers murdered their wives. You don't think that that's weird?"

"Yeah. I think that's super fuckin' weird. But you know what it ain't? My problem." He shrugged, turning to walk away.

But then he suddenly turned back and glanced around the club.

"If you're gonna stay, I'm gonna need you to look like you belong. A lot of these women… well they aren't exactly on the cleaner side of the law. If they get one whiff of you being lawmen, half of my girls'll leave and I can't have that happening. So you sit down at get a drink. In fact…" he smiled deviously and Dean stared at him nervously.

"… I just got a new girl and I know she'd be interested in you." he said with a grin, gesturing at an empty table before turning to scurry off like the rat he was.

"Any luck?" Sam asked as he walked up.

"No. You?" Dean asked as he sat at the table.

"A little. I just talked to Bobby, we officially have a theory." Sam said, sitting down as well, though he wasn't sure why they were sitting down.

"What's that?" Dean asked as a girl bent over them with everything and more spilling out of her tiny top.

"Siren." The younger brother said, his eyebrow cocked at the girl.

"Can I get you something to drink? Or eat?" she asked in a breathy voice, looking at them both with sex eyes.

"Out of the way, Ginger. This is my table." A familiar voice said, causing both of the brothers' eyebrows to shoot up into their hairlines as the busty stripper got a pissed look and turned to glare at her.

Elena smirked up at her as she held the tray in her hands. Luckily, she'd been given waitressing duty for her first (and only) day at the strip club.

"Let's not have a repeat performance of earlier, Ginger. You already had to cover up one eye with concealer." She said with a wink, shooing her off before focusing on the shocked brothers in front of her.

She slowly bent over, aware of the short skirt that was riding up to show the silk and lace underneath. When her lips were at Dean's ear, she made it look like she was acting like a stripper would.

"You're not supposed to know me. Act normal. Now nod." she whispered before standing up and placing her tray on the table.

Dean practically jumped out of his skin when she sat on his lap, her legs thrown over the side as her arms wrapped around his neck.

"It's about damn time you showed up. I've been here for two freaking hours." She hissed as she kept a friendly grin on her face.

"Well what the hell are you doing here… in that?" Sam asked, forced to do the asking as Dean was still completely in shock at having a half clothed Elena in his lap in a strip club.

"I have received more information in the past two hours than I have anywhere else ever. These girls are really open once they think that you're one of them. Except Ginger, she's really just a bitch." Elena said, glaring over at the woman who was giving a trucker a lap dance.

"The three strippers, Jasmine, Aurora, and Ariel… they're all gone. They disappeared right after the murders. None of the girls ever saw them again. But every time they disappear, a new stripper appears. I haven't been able to figure out who the other new one is. Now what were you saying about a siren?" Elena asked.

"Like Greek myth siren, the Odessey?" Dean asked, finally finding his voice.

Sam and Elena stared at him with matching astonished expressions.

"Hey, I read!" he said, defending himself.

"I know you do." Elena said, smiling at him as she brushed his hair back.

"But the siren's not actually a myth, it's more of a beautiful creature that preys on men, enticing them with their siren song." Sam said to the two of them.

"Let me guess, 'Welcome to the Jungle?' No, no. Warrant's 'Cherry Pie.'" Dean chuckled, finally back to normal.

"Their song is more of a metaphor, like...like their call, their allure, you know?" Sam said.

"So they shake their thing and the guys zombie out. You wanna give us a demonstration?" he asked Elena, his eyes falling down on her rhinestone-encrusted black bra and matching short skirt.

"No!" she snapped, slapping his chest.

"Katerina! I believe that I told you to come entertain the men, not sit on their lap and converse with them." The owner hissed as he walked up and grabbed Elena's arm, yanking her off of Dean's lap.

"Hey!" Dean said, jumping up and holding his hands out towards her.

She shook her head with wide eyes. If the owner thought that she knew them, he would think that she was with the FBI too.

"She was doing exactly what I wanted her to do." Dean said, narrowing his eyes at the man.

The owner looked down at Elena, who was staring at Dean with wide eyes.

"Is that true?" he asked gruffly.

She nodded slowly and he let her go, half tossing her back to Dean.

"She's yours for as long as you want." He said as Dean forced himself to remain still instead of catching her and comforting her as he wanted to.

As soon as the man walked away, Dean had her in his lap and was stroking her arm softly where he'd grabbed her so roughly.

"You all right?" he asked, looking up into her dark brown eyes.

"Of course I'm all right. I could have kicked that guy's ass if I wanted to." She said with a grin, wrapping her arms around his neck once more.

"So, sirens?" she asked, looking back at Sam, who also stood up when the owner tried to drag her away.

"Sirens lived on islands, sailors would chase 'em, completely ignoring the rocky shores...and dash themselves to pieces." He explained.

"Sounds like Adam and his buddies." Dean nodded.

"Yeah. If you were a siren in '09 looking to ruin a bunch of morons, where would you set up shop?" Sam asked, glancing around the club.

"So whatever floats the guy's boat, that's what they look like?" Dean asked as Elena tried to look natural.

"Yeah. You see, sirens can read minds. They see what you want most and then they can kinda, like, cloak themselves. You know, like an illusion." Sam explained.

"So it could all be the same chick? Morphing into, uh, to different dream girls?"

"Yeah, actually. Probably. Sirens are usually pretty solitary." Sam nodded.

"How do we kill it?" Elena asked.

"Bobby's working on it. Even if we figure that out..." the younger Winchester trailed off.

"… how the hell are we gunna find it? It could be anybody." The older brother said, looking around.

Elena looked around as well, catching the pissed look in the owner's eyes.

"Hey, listen, he's getting pretty antsy with me only sitting on your lap. Sam, you may not want to be here for this." Elena said, her cheeks flooding with color as she blushed.

"For what?" Sam and Dean asked at the same time.

"I'm about to give your brother a lap dance." Elena said plainly.

Sam was up and out of his seat quickly, saying something about the motel as he walked off. Elena stood up and looked down at Dean, who was looking up at her with surprise.

"Part of the job." She shrugged, sinking down on his lap as she straddled his legs.

He sighed slightly when her hips began moving, her hands on his shoulders to steady her as she got used to the rhythm.

"Have you had to do any other lap dances?" Dean asked roughly, trying to keep himself under control as she danced on him.

"Nope. This is my first." Elena said, smiling at him as she saw the potential jealousy slip away.

"I'm not even going to ask if this is your first lap dance. I know the answer to that." she said, rolling her eyes.

"Jealous?" Dean taunted, a lazy grin forming on his face.

She stared at him with surprise and chose that moment to grind her hips into his. Nevermind that the feeling of his already hard erection sent heat rushing through her body, it caused a loud groan to escape from his mouth and his head to fall back.

"Absolutely not." She breathed in his ear as she slid up his body to slide her hands into his hair.

She tugged lightly, as she knew he loved, and was rewarded with a moan of appreciation.

"How long do you have to work?" he whined, his forehead falling to her shoulder as she sank back onto his lap.

"I can leave now. I don't think I'm going to get anymore information here." She whispered, running her fingers through his hair softly.

"Yeah, let's do that." Dean nodded, kissing her throat before she stood up.

"Stay here, let me go get dressed." She said.

"No, stay in that." Dean said, a wicked glint in his eyes as he smirked up at her.

She grinned down at him.

"All right." she agreed, turning to walk off.

As she walked into the back room, she bumped into another girl.

"Oh, sorry Belle." She said, stumbling slightly before she made it to her clothing that was shoved into a locker.

She quickly pulled on her black trenchcoat and shoved the rest of the clothing into a plastic bag before slipping off the stripper heels and putting on her normal black heels. When she walked out and into the club, she came face to face with the owner.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" he demanded through gritted teeth.

"You told that guy he could have me as long as he wants. Let's just say he took that to heart." She shrugged, breezing past the sleazy man as she walked to Dean and immediately wrapped herself around him, pressing her lips to his fervently.

When she drew away, he stared at her with a smile.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Because I wanted to and I can." She explained simply, turning her head to wink at the owner before taking Dean's hand and allowing him to lead her out of the strip club.

When they arrived outside, it turned out to be raining quite hard.

"Stay here. I'll go get the car." Dean said, gesturing to the small covering that was outside the club.

Elena nodded and huddled there as Dean ran into the rain. A few moments later, another man ran up and took one look at Elena.

"You going in?" he asked, gesturing to the door as the bouncer opened it for him.

She looked over at him and shook her head. He wasn't terribly bad looking. In fact, with his dark hair and green eyes, he looked a little bit like Dean. But he wasn't nearly as good looking. His skin was too pale and he was too skinny. Nothing at all like the real thing. He smiled at her, his teeth a little crooked.

"Are you getting off duty?" he asked, gesturing to her clothing.

She stared at him and nodded.

"Well, how would you like a drink? I'm buying." He offered.

She heard the Impala pull up as she stared at the man.

"No thanks, I'm taken." She said, turning to the car and running out to it, yanking the door open and sliding in as quickly as she could.

"Was that guy flirting with you?" Dean growled, looking even hotter with rain drops sliding from his hair down his face.

"I don't care." Elena said, leaning over and kissing his cheek.

As they pulled away, neither of them saw the heated glare that the man was sending both of them.

* * *

When they got to the motel room, Elena was barely able to set her stuff down before Dean was behind her slowly unbuttoning her coat. She leaned back into him as his hands pulled the coat apart and slid it off of her body. Then his hand laid flat on her taut stomach as his other one stroked her side from the bottom of her bra to her thigh and back up.

"You look amazing." He whispered.

"This isn't really my kind of outfit." She murmured back, sliding her hand over his that was on her abdomen still.

His touch was sending warm shivers throughout her entire body. As she trembled, he whirled her around and lifted her easily, pressing a kiss to her lips.

"You… smell… like… strip club." He said between kisses.

An idea sprung to her mind instantly and she wondered if it was because she was so aroused by his actions.

"Then wash it off of me." she suggested softly, kicking off her heels as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

**LEMONY PART**

He stared up at her with surprise before slowly backing up towards the bathroom. When they got in there, their bodies were a flurry off activity. Dean practically ripped the skirt off of her after she yanked his suit jacket off as well as his tie and button down shirt. Then his pants came off as well as his undershirt. Dean lifted her onto the counter and stood between her legs, capturing her lips in his desperately. As he began kissing down her throat and her collarbone, his hands wrapped around her back and pulled her closer to him, their pressed together as tightly as they could be.

"Dean!" Elena whimpered as his arousal rubbed against her heated core.

His hands slid up her back at her plea and easily unhooked her bra. Elena gasped and held his biceps tightly.

"Are you okay? Did I move too fast?" he asked, suddenly panicked as he started to draw away from her.

"No. I was just… surprised." Elena admitted, looking up at him and smiling softly.

Then, after swallowing very roughly, she slowly pushed him away and allowed the rhinestone bra to slide down her arms before she tossed away. Dean's eyes widened as they took in her bare torso. It was the first time he'd seen her like this. Elena became a little bit self-conscious under his gaze and moved to cover herself up. He stopped her and looked up into her eyes.

"You're beautiful." he whispered, pressing his lips softly and gently to hers as he pressed himself to her once again.

This time when his lips trailed down her neck, he picked her up and whirled her around, pressing her against the wall as his mouth went to her chest. She sighed and leaned her head back as his lips barely touched the top of her bare breast. Suddenly her back arched and she cried out when his hand came up and slid over her other soft mound, his thumb immediately finding her nipple and stroking it softly. As she writhed underneath him, his lips enclosed around the other hard pebble and explored it slowly with his tongue. Elena was practically a crying mess as he did this, her body not used to these focused attentions.

After about a minute, Dean kissed back up her body and looked her in the eyes. His hands trailed down her sides and, when she felt them hook in her underwear, she pushed her hips off of the wall and nodded. He stared deep into her eyes as he slid them down her legs, not even looking away as she stepped out of them. Elena sighed and let her hands fall down his back, going to his boxers. He quickly allowed her to pull them off and their eyes remained on the other's eyes as they stood there, naked, and both very aroused. Finally, in sync, they pushed away from each other and let their eyes wander. Elena could barely breath as she took him in fully.

She thought he was beautiful before, no she knew it. But seeing him in all of his glory, and glorious he was, she could hardly think of a more perfect sight. When her eyes met him again, she saw all of her own thoughts reflected in them and she smiled softly. She slowly took his hand and turned, backing them up towards the shower. Her hand reached backwards and she immediately brought hot water streaming out of the nozzle. They climbed in clumsily, both shaky on their feet as their proximity to each other's naked bodies made them a little fuzzy.

Elena immediately brought Dean into an embrace as he pressed her against the wall. Their bodies were drenched in water almost instantly and it only added to their arousal. Elena's hand drifted down his torso, tracing every muscle that she could feel, before she let her hand slowly drift over his erection. Her eyes drifted downward as she gripped it and began moving her hand back and forth, twisting and pumping, her eyes watching her every movement. The sounds that were coming out of his mouth only made her move faster.

"Fuck! Elena… shit that feels…" he said breathlessly, his hips thrusting into her hand.

"I know." Was all she said, grinning up at him.

He stared down at her for a moment, his eyes darkened with lust, before his hand reached down and pulled her legs apart slightly. When his fingers found her slick womanhood, she moaned as they eagerly slid into her, stretching her wonderfully. He moved slowly at first, his thumb flicking over her sweet spot every once in a while.

"Dean! Please I need… more…. Please!" she whimpered, her hips grinding down into his hand.

As she went faster, so did he. Their bodies writhed together as they pleased each other. Their lips found the other and their moans and cries were drowned out by their mouths devouring each other hungrily. Elena began to spasm first, throwing her head back and letting out a sharp cry of relief as her walls clenched around his fingers. Dean came next, his manhood twitching in her hand as the hot liquid spilled onto her stomach. As they came down from their high, Elena smiled at him, causing him to grin back.

**LEMONY PART OVER**

"You should keep that outfit." He said.

She laughed and shook her head as he turned her to stand under the water. For the rest of their shower, they laughed and joked around, both glowing in the midst of their most recent sexual venture. Elena tossed a fruity soap filled washcloth at him when he began to mess with her long tendrils of hair. He laughed at her as she stood on her tip toes to wash his hair. As she climbed out of the shower and he elected to stay in for a little bit longer (Dean loved long showers whereas Elena didn't), she slapped his hand away as he attempted to grope her ass.

"No sir." She admonished, smiling back at him as he smirked deviously.

"Yes ma'am." He nodded before disappearing behind the curtain.

She shook her head as she dried off and walked out into the room. After quickly putting a pair of warm sweatpants and one of Dean's t-shirts on, she sat on the bed as she combed her hair out. As she scanned the room, her eyes came to rest on the bedside table where Sam's phone sat. She looked around and hesitantly reached out, picking it up. Her finger immediately hit redial and she held it up to her ear as she held her breath.

"Hey, Sam... Sam? You there...?" Ruby's voice echoed from the other end.

Elena immediately hung up and looked down at the phone as dread filled her. At that moment, the door to the motel room opened and Sam walked in. He looked around to see Elena sitting on the bed holding his phone with hurt and sadness in her eyes.

"Elena…" he began.

"You left your phone." She said roughly, standing up to shove it in his chest.

"It isn't…" he tried again.

"I don't want to hear it, Sam." She snapped, cutting him off as she turned away from him to sit on the bed.

Dean chose that moment to walk out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and another one around his neck that he was using to dry his hair.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking between Sam and Elena.

"We've got another siren vic. I went to the police station when I heard about it. Lenny Bristol." Sam announced when Elena remained silent.

"You get in to see him?" Dean asked, walking to his bag to retrieve clothing.

Elena simply watched them converse as she braided her hair over her shoulder.

"Yep. He bought home a stripper named Belle. Coupla hours later he offed his mother. Belle, of course, went MIA." Sam explained, sitting on the other bed and trying to catch Elena's eye.

She sighed and shook her head. Belle. She'd talked to the stripper. She'd talked to the siren and she didn't even know it.

"Wait, he killed his mom?" Dean asked, turning around as he walked back to the bathroom.

"The woman he was closest too." Sam nodded just before his phone rang.

Elena narrowed her eyes at it before turning to the bathroom and walking in it behind Dean. He already had his boxers on and was in the process of pulling on a pair of jeans.

"Ahhh, no. And, uh, it doesn't seem like she's slowing down any. You got anything?" they heard Sam ask from the room.

"He's been calling Ruby." She said softly before hopping up onto the counter to look at Dean.

She'd already made the mistake of keeping Sam's activities a secret once before. She wasn't about to do it again.

"Ruby? Why?" Dean replied quietly, glancing back at the door.

Elena shrugged.

"Hold on a sec, I'll put you on speaker. Hey guys!" Sam called.

Elena begrudgingly climbed off of the counter as they walked back into the room to listen to Bobby.

"It says you need 'a bronze dagger, covered in the blood of a sailor, under the spell of the song'." Bobby explained from over the phone.

"What the hell does that mean?" Dean asked, sounding annoyed with the vagueness.

"You got me. We're dealing with 3000 years of the telephone game here." Bobby said.

"Best guess?" Elena asked.

"Well hello, Elena. The siren's spell ain't got nothing to do with any song. It's most likely some kind of toxin or venom. Something she gets in the vic's blood." He explained.

"And makes them go all Manchurian Candidate. Uh, what do you think, she infects the men during sex?" Sam asked.

"Maybe." Bobby said.

"Supernatural STD." Dean chuckled, making Elena smile and shake her head.

"Well, however it happens, once it's done the siren's gotta watch her back. She gets a dose of her own medicine..." Bobby trailed off.

"It kills her." Sam realized.

"Like a snake getting iced by its own venom." The older hunter confirmed.

"So we just gotta find a way to juice one of the OJs in jail?" Dean asked.

"Not that easy. None of those guys are under the spell anymore. Haven't got a clue where you're going to get the blood you need." Bobby said.

"I think I might have an idea." Sam said, causing them to look at him.

"Be careful. These things are tricky bitches. Wrap you up in knots before you know what hit ya." Bobby warned.

* * *

"Dr. Roberts?" Sam asked as they entered the office again.

"Agent Stiles. Can't stay away, huh?" the woman asked.

Her smile fell a bit when she saw Elena's unimpressed face. Something about the woman rubbed her the wrong way and she had no idea what it could be.

"Actually, uh, we're here on business. About the blood samples. The ones with the high...you know...oxytocin?" Sam said.

"You still have them?" Dean asked.

"Mm-hmm." she nodded.

"Good, we need them." He said, short and to the point.

"What for?" Dr. Roberts asked.

A man walked into the office, staring at them before turning his attention on the doctor.

"Excuse me, Dr. Roberts?" he questioned.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Excuse me, uh, we're a little busy here, buddy." Dean said, getting out his badge.

"Yeah, so am I, pal." The man fired back, getting out his own badge.

Sam and Elena shared a panicked look.

"Doc, can you give us a sec, please?" Sam asked.

"Sure." She nodded, standing up to leave her office.

"Thanks." Sam said appreciatively as Elena narrowed her eyes at the woman.

"What's your name?" Dean asked.

"Nick Munroe. What's yours?" the man countered.

"I'm Special Agent Sam Stiles, this is my partner Dean Murdoch and our analyst, Elena Volovich. What office are you from?" Sam demanded.

"Omaha, Violent Crimes Unit. My SAC sent me down here to see about the murders." He said.

"Hmm." Sam murmured.

"You?" Munroe asked.

"D.C. Our Assistant Director assigned us." Dean explained.

"Oh, which AD?" Munroe asked.

"Mike Kaiser." Sam replied.

"What are your badge numbers?"

"You're kidding, right?" Dean scoffed

"I'm just following protocol." Munroe shrugged.

"Look man, whatever. Just call our AD, he'll sort things out." Sam said, handing him the card with the fake FBI number on it that would reach Bobby.

"Yeah, Assistant Director Kaiser, please." He said when the phone was answered.

After a pause, he began speaking again.

"Yes, sir. Hello. It's Agent Nick Munroe. I'm calling about two of your men. Stiles and Murdoch? Uh, it seems that they've been put on my case by mistake?" Munroe questioned.

"No, no, no, sir. I'm not questioning..." "Ahhh, no sir."

"I'm sorry, guys." He said, moving back over to them after Bobby hung up on him.

"Just don't let it happen again." Dean shrugged with an easy smile.

"Where are you at with this?" Munroe asked, looking between them.

"Where are you at with this?" Dean countered stubbornly.

It was like watching a tennis match as Elena's head kept going back and forth.

"Well, I was just about to run the, uh, perps' bloodwork." Munroe explained.

"I already checked, dead end." Sam informed him.

"Oh yeah?" the man asked.

"Yeah." Sam said, not impressed in the slightest.

"But get this. I feel like I found something that, uh, connects all the murderers." Munroe said, sounding a bit proud.

"Really?" Sam asked.

"They were all banging strippers... from the same club."

"You don't say!" Dean exclaimed with a cheesy grin.

"What do you say we, uh, go down there and check it out?" Munroe suggested.

"Well, here's the thing, Nick. See, we're kinda lone wolves..." Dean began.

"You know what, that sounds like an excellent idea. Just... just give me a second with my partner and our girl here and we'll, uh...one sec. Come here." Sam hissed, bringing them aside.

"Dude, you gotta stay with him." Sam whispered.

"What?" Dean demanded.

"Keep him outta the way." Sam shrugged.

"Why me?" Dean asked.

"'Cause I gotta get the blood samples." Sam said.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with him?"

"Just take him to the strip club...keep an eye out for the siren. Come on, Dean, just... just focus on the naked girls. You'll forget he's even there!" Sam said, smirking at his brother.

Elena glared at him, making him cower away from her.

"I'm not doing this for you." Dean growled, grabbing Elena's arm and steering her towards the man, Agent Munroe.

* * *

As they walked out of the hospital, Elena remained at Dean's side giving glances to Munroe.

"All right, we're taking my ride, no complaining about the tunes." Dean instructed as Elena climbed in the front and gave the man a pointed glare that told him to climb in the back.

"No way. You drive an Impala?" Munroe asked, looking around the car with wonder.

"Yeah." Dean said proudly.

"It's a '67, right? It's a 327 four barrel." He said, Elena spacing out at the boy car talk.

"Yeah, actually." Dean said, sounding surprised.

"It's a thing of beauty." Munroe sighed.

"Thanks."

"How the hell did you talk the Bureau into letting you drive your own wheels?" he asked, making Elena and Dean share a glance with a slight smile.

* * *

"Nobody's Fault But Mine." Dean quizzed as they sat outside the strip club looking for anything mysterious.

"Zeppelin recorded it in '75. It was a cover of a Blind Willie Johnson tune." Munroe said.

"Nice." Dean nodded appreciatively.

"You Shook Me." Munroe countered as Elena crossed her arms and stared at the door to the club.

"'69, debut album, written by Willie Dixon." Dean said from memory.

"And...?" Munroe asked.

"And what?" Dean asked.

"Written by Willie Dixon and J.B. Lenoir." Munroe said, grinning at Dean.

"Dude. Dude! You know, for a fed, you're not a total dick." Dean said, grinning back at him.

Elena stared between them for a moment. For having just met, Dean and Nick Munroe were far too alike for her tastes. Almost… creepily alike. Elena frowned and pulled out her phone slowly, pulling up Bobby's number.

**Look up Nick Munroe, something weird about him**

She sent it before sliding the device back into her pocket.

"Aren't we both feds?" Munroe asked.

"Yeah, I know, I just...you know, not a lot of feds are as cool as us, huh?" Dean said, forgetting himself momentarily.

"So what the hell with this case, man? How does a girl talk four different johns into murder?"

"It's a crazy world." Dean nodded.

"I guess. Hey, can I level with you?"

"Mmm." Dean said.

"I found something kinda weird." Munroe said.

"Well. You have bought your weird to the right spot. Lay it on me." Dean nodded.

"I went to the crime scene this morning. Saw them bagging this up." He handed up a bag with a flower in it. "So I went back, uh, through all the files. It turns out a flower just like that was found at every crime scene."

"Like it was left on purpose?" Dean asked, looking at it.

"You know, sometimes a serial killer will leave an object behind, like a calling card. But with this case? Tell you the truth, I got no idea what's going on." Munroe said, shaking his head.

"It's a hyacinth." Elena said.

They looked at her strangely.

"My mom loved flowers." She shrugged before looking out the window again.

"I think I might know what's going on. I've seen a flower like this before. In that Dr. Roberts' office." Dean said, pulling out his phone.

* * *

After dropping Agent Munroe off at his motel, Elena and Dean were speeding towards their own temporary home when Dean's phone rang.

"Sam! Where the hell have you been?" Dean demanded as he put the phone on speaker.

"With Cara." Sam said simply.

"Oh, it's Cara now? And you're not picking up your phone?" Dean snapped.

"We were trying to find the blood samples… someone stole 'em."

"Yeah, I bet!" Dean scoffed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam demanded.

"Agent Munroe found flower petals at the crime scenes. Hyacinths." Elena said.

"So?" Sam asked.

"Hyacinths? Mediterranean. From the island where the whole damn siren myth started in the first place." Dean said, exasperated.

"Okay." Sam said carelessly.

"Sam, Cara had hyacinth flowers!" Dean stressed.

"You think Cara's the siren?" Sam laughed, sounding unbelieving.

"Well, I did a little checking up on her. She's only been in town for two months." Dean explained.

"Yeah. And?" Sam asked.

"And she has an ex-husband. A dead ex-husband, Carl Roberts. Dropped like a stone, no warning. Supposedly a heart attack." Elena recited.

"Well, maybe it was a heart attack." Sam suggested.

"You're kidding me." Dean deadpanned.

"Look, I just don't think it's her." Sam shrugged.

"And what makes you so sure?" Dean asked.

"I dunno, a hunch." Sam replied.

"A hunch? I'm giving you cold hard facts here and you're giving me a hunch?" Dean asked as Elena sighed and rubbed her forehead at Sam's behavior.

A few seconds of loaded silence filled the car.

"Did you sleep with her?" Dean asked.

"No." Sam said too quickly.

"Holy shit! You did. Middle of Basic Instinct and you bang Sharon Stone? Sam, you could be under her spell right now!" Dean growled.

"Dude, I'm not under her spell." Sam said defensively.

"Unbelievable, man. I just don't get it." Dean said, shaking his head.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Nothing." Dean shot back.

"No. Say it." Sam said, sounding angry.

"No, It's just...first it's Madison, and then Ruby, and now Cara. It's like... what is with you and banging monsters?" Dean snapped, causing Elena to stare at him with wide eyes.

Now he was acting strangely.

"Dean, I'm telling you, it's not Cara. I feel fine." Sam argued.

"I'll bet you do." Dean said.

"You don't trust me?" Sam asked.

"No. Because this could be the siren talking." Dean countered.

"Look, tell me where you are, I'll come meet you and we'll figure things out." Sam said.

"No." Dean shot back, suddenly turning the car around to head the complete opposite way.

"Are you serious?" Sam asked, sounding confused and a little hurt.

"I wish I weren't. We gotta handle this, Sam. Without you." Dean said, hanging up the phone and tossing it in her lap.

"Dean…" she began.

"We gotta call Munroe. He can help us." He said retrieving the phone from her lap and dialing the agent's number.

* * *

Elena watched as Dean walked towards Munroe's car and slid into the passenger's seat. They were both watching the bar that Cara Roberts just entered with steely gazes. She rolled her eyes and looked around. After sitting there for about ten minutes, she looked over to see that Dean was staring at Nick with a strange smile on his face. He nodded and then climbed out of the car, walking over to slide back into the Impala.

"We're going back to the motel." He said, throwing the car into reverse.

"What happened to watching Dr. Roberts?" Elena asked.

"She's not that interesting." Elena stared at him with a confused look.

It didn't take her long to figure out that Munroe was following them back to the motel. After that, it took her even less time to figure out that Dean was under the siren's spell and the siren was Agent Nick Munroe. When they got to the motel room, she lunged for the bedside table to get a knife. Munroe launched out and grabbed her by the hair, slamming her into the wall.

"Not so fast, little miss." He said, pulling out a knife and pressing it to her throat as Dean just stood there.

"Help me." she whimpered, staring at him.

"He won't do that. He's devoted to me right now. This could have been so much easier if you'd fallen for my tricks outside that strip club but I suppose that you are far too involved with him." Nick said, looking at her.

The door suddenly jiggled and Elena opened her mouth to scream. Unfortunately, Nick slammed her head against the wall so hard that her vision went black and she collapsed to the ground in a heap.

* * *

When Elena came to, she opened her eyes to see Dean holding Sam against a wall with the knife against his throat. There was already a cut that was bleeding down his neck.

"You poisoned him." Sam spat at Munroe.

"No. I gave him what he needed. And it wasn't some bitch in a G-string. It was you. A little brother that looked up to him, that he could trust. And now he loves me. He'd do anything for me. And I gotta tell you, Sam, that kind of devotion? I mean, watching someone kill for you? It's the best feeling in the world." Munroe breathed, smiling.

"Is that why you're slutting all over town?" Sam demanded.

"Ahh. I get bored, like we all do. And I wanna fall in love again. And again...and again." He said.

"I'll tell you what. I have fought some nasty sons of bitches, but you are one needy pathetic loser." Sam said.

"You won't feel that way in a minute." Nick said, walking to him and grabbing his cheeks before squirting the toxin from his mouth onto Sam's lips and chin.

Elena grimaced as she slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position.

"So I know you two have a lot you wanna get off your chests. So why don't you discuss it? And whoever survives can be with me forever after they kill this bitch." Nick said, gesturing to a still woozy Elena.

She opened her mouth to argue as Sam and Dean turned to face each other.

"Well, I don't know when it happened. Maybe when I was in hell. Maybe when I was staring right at you. But the Sam I knew, he's gone." Dean growled.

"That so?" Sam asked.

"And it's not the demon blood or the psychic crap. It's the little stuff. The lies. The secrets."

"Oh, yeah? What secrets?" Sam demanded as Elena concentrated on healing the concussion she definitely had.

"The phone calls to Ruby for one." Dean snapped.

"So I need your say-so to make a phone call?"

"That's the point. You're hiding things from me. What else aren't you telling me?"

"None of your business." Sam snapped as they circled each other.

"See what I mean? We used to be in this together. We used to have each other's backs."

"Okay, fine. You know why I didn't tell you about Ruby, and how we're hunting down Lilith? Because you're too weak to go after her, Dean. You're holding me back. I'm a better hunter than you are. Stronger, smarter. I can take out demons you're too scared to go near." Sam accused him.

"That's bullshit." Dean snapped as Elena stumbled to her feet and found the bronze dagger discarded on the floor.

She picked it up slowly as she stood behind Nick.

"Tell me again how weak I am, Sam, huh? How I hold you back?" Dean taunted as he shoved Sam against the wall and brought the knife up to stab Sam.

Elena launched forward and grabbed Dean by the throat, shoving him into the wall.

"I'm sorry." She whimpered before she shoved the knife into his gut, making him cry out in pain.

Munroe stared at her with wide eyes but he barely made it to the door before she launched forward and pounced on him, shoving the knife into his heart with all the strength that she had. They collapsed on the floor and she rolled over with a sigh, scrambling up to run to Dean and quickly place her hand over his wound. As soon as it was healed, she looked at the two brothers with hesitant and concerned eyes as they avoided each other's gaze.

* * *

"Are you going to be okay?" Elena asked softly as they leaned against the Impala in the parking lot of the motel drinking sodas.

"Yeah, fine." Sam said.

"Yeah, good." Dean nodded.

Elena bit her lip and looked down at her feet.

"You know, those sirens are disgusting creatures. It got to both of you but that's no reason to feel bad.

Sam and Dean still refused to look at each other.

"You gonna say goodbye to Cara?" Dean asked Sam.

"Nah, not interested." Sam said, shaking his head.

"Really? Why not?" Dean asked.

"What's the point?" Sam shrugged.

"Well, look at you. Love 'em and leave 'em." Dean said, chuckling with no amusement.

"Dean, look, you know I didn't mean the things I said back there, right? That it was just the siren's spell talking?" Sam said.

"Of course, me too." Dean nodded.

Silence filled the air as Elena watched them.

"Kay. So... so we're good?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, we're good." Dean nodded.

They turned to get in the car as Elena remained standing there. They were lying. They were not good. Nothing was good. It was broken and Elena had no idea how to fix it. She sighed and started forward to walk to the car. Someone appeared in her path and she shrieked, jumping backwards.

"We need to talk. It's time for you to learn." Castiel said before reaching out and touching her arm, transporting her out of the parking lot.

* * *

**Author's Note: review please!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Nyssandria, Hollywood17, RHatch89, slayerdiaries, Dark Alana, RachReadsAlot, TheElegantFaerie, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, JMHUW, DrawingMyHeartOut, Meowgli, neontreeslover, Nicole0203, and chiwi for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. I still love all of you. Each and every one of you is fantastic.**

**2. There is A LOT of Elena/Castiel scenes in this so that should make you happy.**

**3. After an overwhelming consensus, there will be a sex scene before this part of the story is over. Don't you worry, I will try my best to make it as amazing as it should be.**

**4. There is a little surprise in this chapter and I mean very little. Castiel just has a small present for Elena.**

**5. Enjoy!**

**6. Elena's outfit is on my profile**

* * *

Elena inhaled sharply as they landed on solid ground once more. She whirled around, trying to figure out where they were. It was dark, for some reason, and she could hear the sound of car alarms.

"What the hell?" she demanded, rounding on the angel.

He wasn't paying attention to her. His eyes were focused forward and she looked as well to see a parking lot full of overturned cars.

"Cas, what is that?" she asked hesitantly.

He still didn't answer, starting forward to approach the parking lot. Elena walked beside him. When they reached the cars, they walked around them to a beautiful blonde woman lying in the middle of the pavement.

"What happened to her?" Elena said, her eyes wide as the knelt beside the unmoving body.

Cas' hand went to her face and gently closed her eyes before running over the wound in her chest.

"She was one of my sisters." He said softly, looking as devastated as he could past his unemotional mask.

Elena bit her lip, unsure of what to say. It was hard to believe that she was actually looking at a dead angel. Even though she knew they could die, it was hard to let go of the idea that they were invincible. As she squinted at the ground around her, she could see a faint outline of wings on the asphalt.

"Who killed her?" she asked.

"I don't know. Whoever it was… whatever it was… she put up a fight." Cas said, looking around at the cars.

"I'm sorry." She said, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

He looked up at her with slightly confused eyes.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because she was your family. And it's sad." Elena explained softly.

Cas stared at her, still looking confused but also slightly understanding at the same time. She stood at the same time he did, police sirens causing them to look around to see quite a few police cars speeding towards the scene.

"We must go." Castiel said, stepping forward to touch her shoulder.

Elena opened her mouth to argue but they were already in another place.

"Okay stop." She said, stepping back as she held her hands up.

He stared at her.

"What is going on? Why did you take me away from Dean and Sam? Do you realize how much they are freaking out right now? You can't just whirl me away from where I am like that! Take me back!" Elena demanded.

"I can't." he said simply.

She opened her mouth to argue more.

"Please stop. You talk very quickly when you are upset and it gets rather high-pitched." Castiel said, much to her surprise.

Her mouth fell open as her eyes widened.

"What is it?" he asked.

"That is possibly the most human thing I've ever heard you say. But I do not get high-pitched." She said, a little put off by his statement.

"If you think that the Winchesters are so concerned over your location, why don't you call them on that device of yours?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I can't! That device of mine is in the freaking Impala!" she screeched, suddenly realizing that he was exactly right about her voice when she got upset.

It made her even more annoyed. Castiel looked around and she suddenly realized that they were standing in a park with very few people.

"She would like to use your communication device." Cas said, stopping the first person he saw.

Elena rolled her eyes as the man stared at the angel with a confused look.

"Can I borrow your cell phone for a minute?" she sighed, starting forward to turn the man's attention to her.

"Yeah." He said slowly, pulling it out of his pocket.

"Thank you." she said with a smile, taking it from him and quickly dialing Dean's number.

"What?" his voice said, sounding pissed and panicked at the same time as she expected it to.

"Dean." She sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Elena! Where are you?" he demanded, the anger melting from his voice to be replaced by concern.

"I'm fine, Dean. I'm with Cas." She said, staring at the angel who was standing by the man who looked confused.

"What the hell? Where did he take you?" Dean asked.

"I don't know where the hell I am. I could be in Paris for all I know." Elena said, looking around the generic park.

"I assure you that we're not in France." Cas said, attempting to reassure her.

"Thanks." She said dryly.

"Tell that feathery bastard to get you back here now." Dean said, sounding pissed again.

"I can't exactly command him to bring me back, Dean." She said, looking at Cas.

"Hey, is something going on? Did he… kidnap you?" the man asked, confused at the topic of conversation.

Elena shook her head at him.

"I'm fine." She assured him.

"Who's that?" Dean asked.

"The man whose phone I'm using." She explained.

"Tell him to shut his damn mouth." Dean said.

"I can't tell him to do that, Dean. I'm borrowing his phone." Elena argued, exasperated by the conversation.

"Can I have my phone back now?" the man asked.

"He's asking for his phone back." she said.

"Tell Cas to bring you back! Put him on the phone and let me tell him!" Dean said.

"Let me just see what he wants." Elena said, a bit curious herself.

"Who? The man with the phone or Cas?" Dean asked.

"Seriously, my phone please?" the stranger asked.

"In a minute." Elena waved him off.

"But…" he began to argue.

"She said in a minute." Cas said, putting a hand out to stop the man from walking towards her.

"Dean, I can't talk for much longer. As soon as I figure out what the hell Cas wants, I'll have him bring me back." Elena said.

"No! He can bring you back now!" Dean snapped.

"Don't snap like that! And Cas, stop glaring at the nice man who let me borrow his phone." She berated the angel, who was giving the man the evil eye.

"I really think I should have my phone back now." The man said, starting forward.

"She's not ready." Cas said simply, pressing two fingers to the stranger's forehead and causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.

"Oh God… Cas just knocked out the man with the phone. Dean, I have to go. I'll see you soon." Elena said into the phone.

"Wait! No!" Dean began to argue.

"Just go back to Bobby's. I'll meet you there as soon as possible." She said.

"Elena…" he began.

"Dean, calm down. I'll see you soon. What were you thinking, Cas?" she asked, hanging the phone up and bending down to squat next to the man.

"He was being impatient. I do not like impatience." He said simply, staring down at the man.

"Yeah? Tell that to the lynch mob." She said, looking up at the people who were starting to walk towards them.

"All right… Cas? You can run in that trenchcoat right?" she asked, placing the phone on the man's chest before slowly backing away.

"Yes, but I don't know why I would run when I can just take us wherever we need to go." the angel said with confusion.

"Because the only thing that could make this situation worse is all of those people seeing us apparate out of here." Elena said, grabbing Castiel's arm and turning them around to run away from the stranger and the gathering crowd.

They reached the treeline and, once they were out of sight, she felt her feet leave the ground once more.

"Where are we?" she asked, looking around at the bright green field.

"Somewhere in Scotland, I believe." Cas said, looking around as well.

Elena stared at him with wide eyes.

"You brought me to Scotland?" she exclaimed.

"I need you to be fully focused on me. I only took you away from Dean and Sam so that I could have your attention. I intend to tell you about what you are." Cas said.

Elena stared at him, becoming quiet as she turned his words over in her head.

"Seriously? No vague hints or random comments about it? The truth?" she asked.

"Yes." He nodded.

"And it has to be done in Scotland… because…?" Elena questioned.

"I thought that it might be peaceful for you." Cas said.

"Oh… ok." She said, looking around.

"But first, I must make a call." He said, pulling a phone out of his pocket.

Elena stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"If you had a cell phone, why didn't you let me use it to call Dean?" she said, trying to keep her patience with the infuriating angel.

"Because I did not want to Dean to recognize the number." Castiel explained, quickly pressing the talk button and holding it to his ear.

"How are you even getting service out here?" Elena asked.

* * *

Dean tapped a button on the jukebox, then hit the jukebox hard, glaring down at it. Sam was back at the table of the diner they drove to so that they could figure out what to do with Elena's sudden disappearance. Suddenly Sam's phone rang. He answered it.

"Hey Bobby." He said.

Dean's attention turned to him.

"Ask him about Elena." Dean said.

"No, no, no, you're right, it's definitely weird. ...Okay, Bobby, thanks." Sam said, shaking his head at Dean as he hung up the phone.

"Why the hell didn't you ask about Elena?" Dean demanded as Sam began typing into his computer.

"Bobby found something in Wyoming." He explained.

"A job? No way. My job is to find Elena right now." Dean argued.

"We obviously can't go chasing after an angel, Dean. So how about we concentrate on trying to solve a case until Castiel brings Elena back." Sam suggested.

Dean glared at him as he bit into a burger.

"Small town, no one's died in the past week and a half." He said, continuing as if Dean had agreed to work on the case.

"That so unusual?" Dean snapped, wiping his mouth.

"Well, it's how they're not dying. One guy with terminal cancer strolls right out of hospice. Another guy gets capped by a mugger and walks away without a scratch." Sam said.

"Capped in the ass?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Police say Mr. Jenkins was shot in the heart at point-blank range by a nine-millimeter." Sam recited, reading off of the computer.

"And he's not a doughnut?" Dean asked with a full mouth as he continued eating.

"Locals are saying it's a miracle." Sam shrugged.

"Okay." Dean scoffed.

"It's got to be something nasty, right? I mean, people making deals or something." Sam

Dean looked as though he was considering it as he sipped his drink.

"You think?" he asked.

"What else would it be?" Sam countered.

"I don't know." Dean said, shaking his head.

"All right." Sam nodded as he put his laptop in his bag.

"Get that to-go." he said, nodding to Dean's food.

Dean looked down at his food and didn't move.

"Come on." the younger brother urged, picking up his own bag.

Dean didn't move a muscle except to chew. Sam stared at him, picking up his bag and slinging it over his shoudler.

"What?" he asked.

Dean looked up at him as he continued to chew, then glanced away and back.

"Sure you want me going with you?" he finally asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Sam asked.

"I don't want to be holding you back or nothing." Dean shrugged, taking another bite out of his burger.

"Dude, I've told you a hundred times, that was the siren talking, not me. Can we get past this?" he asked, sighing with exasperation.

"Yeah, we're past it." Dean said as he put down his burger and brushed his hands off on a napkin.

* * *

Elena stared at Cas with shock as he hung up the phone and turned to face her.

"That… was…" she trailed off.

He just stared, looking patient.

"You just… how was that possible? You just sounded like Bobby." She said, her voice full of shock.

"It was simple." Cas shrugged.

"Why did you do it?" Elena asked.

"Because it would seem that the Winchesters never really do what I, and the other angels, need them to do. So I have to find clever ways to do what I need them to do. This is a seal and I need them to stop it from being broken." He explained.

"That's pretty…" she trailed off.

"I know that you disapprove of many of the ways that angels go about things but it was necessary." Cas sighed.

"No, I was going to say it's pretty genius." She said, nodding her head.

He stared at her with a slightly surprised expression before walking to a large boulder to sit down. She followed his lead, sitting on another boulder beside it.

"You are what the angels call a guardian." He said.

"That's what Esther, the witch, called me." Elena said.

"Ah yes, the witch. I suppose that your story starts with her. She did create your line, after all." Castiel said.

"I thought that the angels created me." Elena said, her voice slightly shaky as she was feeling both apprehensive and conflicted about finally getting an explanation.

"They created you specifically but there would have been no 'you' without the witch. She messed with things that she did not understand and almost messed everything up. We righted her wrong." He said.

"Okay?" Elena said, urging him on.

"She thought that she was the first to create a doppelganger. That is not true. Doppelgangers have been around for a very long time. And, contrary to popular belief, they are not an omen of the devil. They are, in fact, the opposite. They are the creation of angels." He said.

She simply nodded as he paused to let her think about his words.

* * *

"Now, you two said you were bloggers?" Jim Jenkins asked, looking at Dean and Sam, who were sitting at the kitchen table of his house.

"Yes, sir. Floored by the Lord dot com." Sam nodded.

"All of God's glory fit to blog." Dean said, grinning.

Sam glanced at him and cleared his throat, trying to get him to act more serious about this.

"Um. Some of the people around town are saying what happened to you was a miracle." He said.

"It was. Plain as day." Jim nodded.

"How can you be so sure?" Sam asked.

"How else do you explain it? The doctors can't." the man shrugged. "There's a bullet in my heart, and it's pumping like a piston."

"Well, how do you explain it?" Dean asked, leaning forward and placing his elbows on the table.

Jim hesitated, looking over at his daughter who was sitting in the living room with her mother.

"Look, honestly. I was nobody's saint… not exactly father of the year, either." Jim explained.

"Okay." Dean nodded.

"But when that guy shot me and I didn't bleed a drop? I just knew the Lord was giving me a second chance." He said.

"That so?" Dean said, skepticism dripping from his every word.

"I had this feeling… like angels were watching over me." Jim said, pausing as Dean nodded.

"I wouldn't expect you guys to understand." He sighed.

"Well, we'll just have to try." Dean said.

"You wouldn't have happened to have swung by a crossroads in the past week or so?" Sam questioned.

"No." Jim said, confused.

"Maybe you met someone? With black eyes? Or red?" he asked.

Jim leaned forward, squinting between them. "Who'd you guys say you were again?" he asked.

Dean and Sam exchanged a look.

"Never mind. Thank you for your time." Dean said as they stood up.

Dean walked out of the house first with Sam following him.

* * *

"When humans were created, it was originally planned for angels to be their guardians. Our father was the originator of this idea. As you can imagine, having met Uriel, many of the angels did not agree with this plan. We were warriors, not… babysitters?" Castiel said, sounding unsure of whether or not he used the right terminology.

Elena nodded encouragingly.

"But there needed to be someone to watch over certain important humans. Creations who weren't as strong as angels but who were definitely stronger than humans. They needed to be protectors of their charges. Guardians." He said.

"And… I'm one of those?" Elena asked with wide eyes.

"There is much more to the story before I get to you." he warned her.

She nodded and sat back on her rock.

"At first, the guardian idea was brilliantly executed. We did not need for the guarded to live forever by any means. We needed them to live long enough to do what needed to be done before they were allowed to join us in heaven for their reward. The list of the guarded is short and celebrated. Abraham. Noah. King David." He said.

"All biblical people?" Elena asked.

"Not only 'biblical people'. There are such names on the list that you would recognize. Constantine. William the Conqueror. Joan of Arc. William Wilberforce. Mother Teresa. Abraham Lincoln." He said.

"I hate to tell you, but Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. I'm pretty sure that his guardian failed." Elena said.

"He was relieved of his place on earth after he laid the groundwork for the equality of humans in your country. He did what he was meant to and he was rewarded greatly for it." Castiel explained.

"So… guardians protect important people who are supposed to make important stuff happen?" Elena asked.

"That is the most basic explanation, yes. But there is much more to it. That's where the myth of the doppelganger comes in. After a few hundred years or so, the angels found that it became difficult to keep track of all of the guardians on earth. There were many of them, some of them without a charge but still descended from a line of guardians. We could find them and round them up but it would take a very long time. So we decided to end the line of guardians for a few generations so that they would die out. Then we completely started over, this time more knowledgeable about it." he said.

"Doppelgangers?" Elena said, the connection making sense.

Castiel nodded.

"To make every guardian in the bloodline look exactly the same was the easiest thing to do. We created only ten lines, ten guardians at first whose face was repeated throughout his bloodline until another was called to protect someone. Each guardian line was assigned an angel. It was easier to convince the angels to interact with the guardians as they were a bit higher up the chain than humans but the job of guardian-helper wasn't a coveted position." Castiel said.

"So… where do I come in?" Elena asked.

"The myth of the doppelganger was completely turned around to being evil. There was nothing we could do about it and it actually made it easier for us so we didn't want to dissaude the rumor. Unfortunately, that's where the witch comes in." Castiel said.

Elena nodded, gesturing for him to continue, her mind practically exploding with all of this new information.

* * *

Dean sat at a table in a motel room, Sam's laptop open as he read a news article. Sam walked in, holding a case file.

"Hey." He said as he closed the door and Dean looked up.

"Anything?" Dean asked.

Sam walked over, sitting in a chair as well.

"That cancer survivor? He was clinically dead, his wife pulled the plug, and now he's taking her out for their twentieth anniversary." He explained.

"Any sign of a deal?" Dean asked.

"No. What about you? Found anyone dying around here?" Sam questioned.

"Not since Cole Griffith." Dean said, looking down at the young boy's obituary. "He dropped ten days ago. It was the last death I could find."

"So, what are you thinking?" Sam asked.

"Eh, maybe it is what the people say it is." Dean shrugged as he stood, walking to the little kitchen in the room.

"Miracles? Dean, our experience, when do miracles just happen?" Sam scoffed, scowling at the screen as he slid the computer over to him.

"Well, there's no deals. There's, uh, no skeevy faith healers." Dean said as he poured a cup of coffee. "I mean, these souls just ain't getting dragged into the light."

Sam sighed, looking as though he was thinking hard. Dean could see it when something dawned on his brother.

"Maybe 'cause there's no one around to carry them." Sam said, turning to look at him.

Dean walked back over and sat in his chair again.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, grim reapers—that's what they do, right? Schlep souls? So, if death ain't in town…" Sam said.

"Then nobody's dying. So what? The local reaper's on strike? Playing the back nine? I don't know, Sam." Dean said, sipping at his coffee.

"Well, then, let's talk to somebody who might." Sam said.

"Well, last I checked, huggy bear ain't available."

"No, dude, the kid." he suggested.

"The kid? The kid's a doornail." Dean scoffed.

"Exactly. Look, if he was the last person to die around here, then maybe he's seen something. We should talk to him." Sam explained.

"I love how matter-of-fact you are about that. Strange lives." Dean said, chuckling with absolutely no amusement.

* * *

Sam and Dean set up shop at a gravestone engraved **Beloved Son Cole Griffith 1997 – 2009 Forever In Our Memories**. Five candles were arranged around a pentacle drawn on a cloth spread over the grave. Sam put a bundle of sticks in the center of the pentacle as Dean sat on another gravestone and flipped through their father's journal.

"You sure this is gonna work?" Dean asked.

Sam looked up at him with an exasperated expression, tired of explaining this to his older brother.

"No. But if his spirit's around, this should smoke him out." he said.

Sam poured a liquid into a bowl as Dean closed the book and sighed heavily.

"What?" Sam asked.

"This job is jacked, that's what." Dean snapped.

"How so?"

"You want me to gank a monster or torch a corpse, hey, let's light it up, right? But this? If we fix whatever this is, people are gonna start dropping dead. Good people." Dean said, shaking his head as he stood up.

Sam stood up as well as he brushed his knees off.

"Look, I don't want them to die, either, Dean, but there's a natural order." He said.

"You're kidding, right?" Dean scoffed, turning to stare at him.

"What?" Sam asked, shrugging.

"You don't see the irony in that? I mean, you and me, we're like the poster boys of the unnatural order. All we do is ditch death."

"Yeah, but the normal rules don't really apply to us, do they?" Sam reminded him, causing Dean to stare at him with a slight grimace.

"We're no different than anybody else." he said.

"I'm infected with demon blood. You've been to hell." Sam said simply.

Dean looked away and shook his head.

"Look, I know you want to think of yourself as Joe the Plumber, Dean, but you're not. Neither am I. The sooner you accept that, the better off you're gonna be." Sam said, trudging around the circle.

Dean looked up, looking as though he wanted to argue again.

"Ah, Joe the Plumber was a douche." He said simply, choosing to keep quiet.

"You gonna help me finish this?" Sam asked, gesturing to the grave.

"Hey!" a man interrupted, walking towards them with a flashlight. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Uh…" Sam said, looking at Dean for help. "Just take it easy."

"What the hell is this?" the man asked, looking at the grave with a disgusted look.

"Okay, this… this… this is not what it looks like." Dean said with a slight laugh, trying to make the situation look better than it was.

"Really? Cause it looks like devil worship." The man accused them.

"What? No! No, this is not devil worship. This… this is… this… this is, uh…" Dean said, shaking his head before he sighed and his shoulders slumped. "I don't have a good answer." He said, looking at Sam.

"We're leaving." Sam said quickly.

"You're not going anywhere." The man said as he took a few steps forward and both of the brothers frowned.

"Ever again. Sam." He said, before looking at Dean as his eyes went entirely white.

"Alastair." Dean said, realizing that they were in trouble.

His eyes went back to human and he smirked.

"I thought you got deep fried, extra-crispy." The older brother said, pulling Sam backwards.

"Nah. Just the pediatrician I was riding. His wife's still looking for him. It's hilarious. Anyway." Alastair chuckled, looking at Sam, who was practically steaming he was so pissed.

"No time to chat. Got a hot date with death." Alastair said before flicking his hand.

Dean went flying across the graveyard and collided with a gravestone before falling to the ground unconscious.

"Dean!" Sam yelled, panicked by his lack of movement.

Alastiar turned to Sam, smirking as he flicked his hand. Nothing happened and his smile disappeared as he tried again. It was Sam's turn to smirk.

"You're stronger, Sam. You've been soloflexing with your little slut?" Alastair said appreciatively.

"You have no idea." Sam said, lifting his own hand and flicking it.

Alastair flew through the air and landed on the ground with a thump. Sam raised his hand higher to exorcise him but the black smoke flew from the man's body as he fled. Sam dropped his hand, surprised by the demon's quick exit.

* * *

"We'd gone several generations with our guardians and their doppelganger status working out perfectly. That was, until Esther Mikaelson got her hands on a spell to create her own doppelganger line, most likely given to her by Lilith or Alastair to create an answer to our guardians. The Petrova line was not meant to be a doppelganger line." Castiel explained.

"So the Petrova line already existed and Esther cursed it to be a doppelganger line to bind Klaus?" Elena asked as he nodded in confirmation.

"When we got wind of this creation, the original plan was to destroy the entire Petrova line so that it would not be used as a weapon against the angels and their guardians. It was about that time that prophecy was revealed. The apocalypse and the role of two very important figures in the event." He said.

"Sam and Dean." Elena realized.

Castiel nodded.

"It was immediately decided that they should have a guardian because, if the prophecy was true, their life was going to be filled with danger and they should have someone to protect them from everything. It was about that time that the decision had to be made for what to do about the Petrova doppelganger line. They were ready to destroy you until an angel spoke up, suggesting that a guardian be created out of your line. One guardian. No others in the entire line. Just one. Then have the line die out so that it would not be a danger anymore. The archangels actually agreed with this, formulating a plan. One guardian would be created, a special one who would protect the two men who would be so important to the apocalyptic prophecy. It was then that they discovered that you were created to be a female." Castiel said.

Elena stared down at her hands with wide eyes. When everyone said that she was created by angels, they weren't being witty or trying to trick her. She was really hearing the story of how she was created by the angels for a specific path that she was going down so far.

"So the super strength? The healing?" Elena questioned.

"All to help you protect the brothers better." He nodded.

She sighed, shaking her head as it was all full of information.

"And the ritual with Klaus?" she asked.

"That is something we could not stop. It was, after all, what you were originally created for. It was at that ritual that you were activated though. I was appointed to be your guide and helper. I brought you back to life and put the dreams in your head to lead you to Dean. As soon as you found him and his brother, your actual abilities were activated by their presence." He said.

Elena shook her head and stood, pacing.

"So not only has my path been set in stone for centuries, but I don't get a choice in any of it?" she asked.

"No, you get a choice. But the alternative is rather painful." Cas said, watching her.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked.

"Guardians who choose not to follow their rightful path are… well… cut off. Do you feel a slight pain? It could be in your head or in your chest? It doesn't hurt but it's a bit annoying." He said.

As Elena thought about it, she realized that she was feeling exactly what he described. It felt as though something was tickling the edge of her mind to the point of slight pain and annoyance. It wasn't something that was immediately brought to her attention though. It was subtle.

"What is that?" she asked.

"That is your body reacting to the separation from your charges. Guardians are meant to be with them at all times, protecting them. The more time you spend with them, the more profound your bond becomes with them and the more you begin to notice the feeling when you're away from them." Cas explained.

"Great." Elena sighed, throwing up her arms as she was unable to focus on anything else other than the feeling.

"If you think that is bad, imagine the feeling increased a hundredfold. A thousandfold. That is the feeling that a guardian gets when they choose not to pursue the path laid out for them. They are abandoning their very nature and their body punishes them for it even if they've never spent a single moment with their charge." Castiel said.

"That sounds… horrible." Elena said with wide eyes.

"It has been known to drive them insane and to the point of suicide." He nodded.

She grimaced and shook her head.

"So… what now?" she asked, stopping to look at Cas as her mind processed everything that she'd learned.

* * *

Dean groaned as he lay on the bed, an icepack pressed to his head.

"How you doing?" Sam asked as he walked into the motel room.

"I'm in pain, that's how I'm doing. I think I have a concussion." Dean snapped, glaring at the ceiling.

"You want some aspirin?"

Dean sat up and shook his head.

"No thanks, House. So, demons, huh?" he questioned.

"Yeah. So much for miracles." Sam scoffed.

"And what the hell happened with Alastair again?" Dean asked for the fifth time.

"I told you, he tried to fling me or whatever." Sam said, flicking his hand in demonstration as he walked over to the coffeemaker. "And it didn't work, so he bailed."

"Well, how come he couldn't fling you? He chucked you pretty good last time." Dean said, his voice full of doubt.

Sam turned to face Dean and paused before answering.

"Got no idea." He shrugged, turning back and filling a cup with coffee.

"Sam, do me a favor. If you're gonna keep your little secrets, I can't really stop you, but just don't treat me like an idiot, okay?" Dean said, climbing out of bed.

"What? Dean, I'm not keeping secrets." Sam defended himself, turning back to Dean.

"Mm-hm. Whatever. So, did you go back and Q&A the dead kid?"

Sam walked over to the other bed, holding up a thin notebook.

"Didn't have to. Bobby called. He did some digging." He said, following the change in subject easily.

"And?" Dean asked.

"He thinks I'm right. Local reaper's gone. Not just gone… kidnapped." Sam explained.

"By demons? Why?"

"Listen to this." Sam said as he opened the notebook. "And he bloodied death under the newborn sky… sweet to taste, but bitter when once devoured."

"Swanky. What the hell's that mean?" Dean asked.

"Well, it's from a very obscure, very arcane version of Revelations." He replied.

"Which means what I think it means?" the other brother asked.

"Basically, you kill a reaper under the solstice moon… tomorrow night, by the way… you got yourself a broken seal." Sam nodded.

"How do you ice a reaper? You can't kill death." Dean said, tossing the icepack into the freezer.

"I don't know. Maybe demons can. Where the hell are the angels is what I want to know? We could use their help for once." Sam said.

"They're busy kidnapping Elena. Which still pisses me off. We could really use her in this situation. But it looks like we're gonna have to take care of this one ourselves." Dean said, his voice filled with annoyance.

"What are we gonna do, just swing in and save the friendly neighborhood reaper?" Sam asked.

"You got a better idea, I'm all ears." Dean shrugged.

"Dean, reapers are invisible. The only people that can see them are the dead and the dying." Sam reminded him.

"Well, if ghosts are the only ones that can see them..." Dean said, an idea occuring to him as he trailed off.

"Yeah?" Sam asked.

"Then we become ghosts." Dean said, smirking as he sat on the bed once more.

"You do have a concussion." Sam chuckled.

"Sounds crazy, I know." Dean nodded.

"It is crazy." Sam confirmed as Dean smirked even more.

"How?" Sam finally sighed.

* * *

Sam quickly opened the door to see Pamela and Dean on the other side.

"I can't even begin to tell you how crazy you two are." Pamela said immediately, walking inside as she felt her way around.

"Well, Pamela, you're a sight for sore eyes." Sam sighed, sounding relieved as Dean fought back choking laughter at his choice of words.

Pamela turend around, lowering her sunglasses far enough to reveal her white plastic eyes.

"Aw, that's sweet, grumpy." She said wryly, smirking at him as she slid the sunglasses back on. "What do you say to deaf people?"

Dean chuckled as Sam looked uncomfortable.

"Which one of you brainiacs came up with astral projection?" Pamela asked, arching an eyebrow as she sat down in a chair.

"Yo." Dean said as he raised his hand.

"Of course. Chachi." Pamela sighed, shaking her head.

Dean turned to Sam and mouthed 'Chachi?' with confusion as Sam shrugged.

"So, let's be clear. You want to rip your souls out of your bodies and take a little stroll through the spirit world?" Pamela asked.

"Well… yeah." Dean said.

"Do you have any idea how heavy-duty insane that is?" she said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Maybe, but that's where the reaper is, so..." Dean trailed off.

"So, it's nuts." Pamela reiterated.

"Not if you know what you're doing." Dean said.

"You don't know what you're doing." she reminded him.

"No, but you do." Dean said.

"Yeah, I do. And guess what? I'm sick of being hauled back into your angel-demon, Soc-Greaser crap." Pamela said, sounding annoyed.

"Look, I'd love to be kicking back with a cold one, watching Judge Judy, too." Dean said defensively.

"Nice. More blind jokes?" Pamela scoffed, leaning back.

"You know what I mean. We're talking the end of the world here, okay? No more tasseled leather pants, no more Ramones CDs, no more nothing." Dean said, pausing slightly.

"We need your help." He sighed.

"Hmm… well… it's hard to say no to you boys. But first, where is that girl of yours, Elena? You run her off already?" she asked.

Dean sighed angrily and shook his head.

"She was kidnapped by an angel to be returned at his earliest convenience." He snapped.

"Like I said… angel crap." Pamela said.

* * *

"How are you faring with all of this new information?" Castiel asked as she sat on the rock and buried her head in her hands.

"Not great." She mumbled, rubbing her face roughly as she concentrated on breathing.

"It is a lot to take in. I will give you a few moments to wrap your head around it before we return." he said.

Elena looked over at him.

"I'm only eighteen, Cas. I'm supposed to be freaking out about SAT's and graduation and what college I'm going to. Not the apocalypse and being a guardian. How do I wrap my head around this? How do I ever get used to the fact that…" she trailed off, her voice failing her.

"… that there are so many beings who have been waiting for you for hundreds of years?" Castiel asked.

"You're not making it better." She informed him.

"You are very important, Elena. More important than I can even begin to explain. You are not only a healer and protector to the Winchester brothers. You are much different than any guardian who has ever lived. To give you perspective, I will tell you how guardians usually do their job. They are usually invisible. Either literally or metaphorically. Some of them simply fade into the background of their charge's life. For every important leader, their guardian is usually hidden in their guard, the secret service for your leader. But sometimes, we let the guardian make another choice. They choose to be entirely invisible. No one can see them or hear them. They remain at their charge's side at all times and they can do so because no one can bother them.

But with you, neither of these is an option. We allowed for you to pursue a personal approach to guardianship, something that has never been done before. We let you build a connection to the brothers as your powers developed. We slowed down the process. Usually you would have received all of your powers at once. You would have been a full guardian and ready for battle. But we let you get used to it at your own speed. The more you used your basic powers, the more they grew." Castiel explained.

"So… I'm different? I'm… close to Sam and Dean and that's strange?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I'll ask again, what happens now? Because I am… very overwhelmed." Elena said.

"Rightfully so. Now… you can choose." Cas said.

She sighed and shook her head.

"That's so unfair." She sighed.

"I apologize." He said, his eyes downcast.

"No, it's not unfair because of the pain I would experience in my mind because of the separation if I said no. It's the pain that I would experience emotionally, physically, mentally… because I'll be damned if I'm not so freaking attached to those brothers. I couldn't leave them if I tried. I didn't realize that until now. I… am devoted." She said, her mind going back to the siren.

Cas stared at her.

"That is not all the guardian nature speaking. Part of that is simply your nature." He informed her.

"Great, at least I'm still partly myself." She sighed.

Something occurred to her and she looked up at Castiel.

"Why now? Why did you choose to reveal everything to me now?" she asked.

* * *

Sam closed the curtains as Dean finished lighting the candles that were set up around the motel room. He slowly brought one of the candles over to the bedside table, shielding the flame with one hand. Pamela was sitting in a chair between the beds.

"Tell me something, geniuses. Even if you do break into the veil and you find the reaper, how you gonna save it?" Pamela asked, looking as though she would roll her eyes if she could.

Sam closed the curtains on the last window before turning to them.

"With style and class." Dean said snarkily.

"You're gonna be two walking pieces of fog who can't touch or move anything. You'll be defenseless, hotshot." Pamela shot back.

"I seem to recall a bunch of ghosts beating the crap out of us." Sam reminded her.

"Yeah, well, they had plenty of time to practice." Pamela said, looking at him as she followed his voice.

"Well, then, I guess we got to start cramming." Dean said.

"Wow, couple of heroes. All right." Pamela shrugged, patting one of the beds next to her. "Lie down. Close your eyes."

A few moments later, Sam and Dean were lying on each bed.

"Animum vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. Vis, vis, vis… okay, guys. That's it. Showtime." Pamela said, sitting back and crossing her arms.

Dean sat up as the room goes from full color to shades of blue. He looks at Pamela.

"Well, nothing like shooting blanks. What's plan B?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow when she didn't react.

Dean looked over at Sam who was lying on the other bed. Then he looked up to see a different Sam standing over the bed looking at his hands. Dean looked over his shoulder to see his own unconscious body lying there.

"Oh, I'm so feeling up Demi Moore." He said.

"All right, so, I'm assuming you're somewhere over the rainbow. Remember I have to bring you back." Pamela reminded them.

She stood and went over to Sam's unconscious body as Dean watched her.

"I'll whisper the incantation in your ear." She informed them.

She leaned over Sam to do exactly that, whispering something that made Sam smirk.

"You have got a great ass." She said quietly so Dean couldn't hear.

"What'd she say?" Dean asked, looking at Sam who shrugged.

* * *

Sam and Dean walked along the street, looking around as they felt slightly eerie. A car drove past them as a female jogger ran right through Sam without noticing. Dean laughed, watching her go.

"That was wild. This is like Twilight Zone." Dean said, looking at Sam before getting idea.

Dean reached out and stuck his arm through Sam's chest, looking proud of himself as he grinned up at him. Sam stared down at the arm before looking up at Dean with a stony face.

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" Dean asked, prodding at him.

"Get out of me." Sam snapped.

Dean pulls his arm back and rolled his eyes.

"You're such a prude. Come on." he said, turning to walk down the street as Sam followed.

* * *

"Angels are being killed and we have no idea who is doing it. We need…" Castiel trailed off at the cold look on her face when she thought of the other angels, especially Uriel.

"I need your help." He sighed.

"And that's why you told me about what I am?" Elena asked.

"I thought… if I gave you that, there could be a deal struck." Castiel shrugged, looking around the field.

Elena sighed and turned her entire body to look at him, reaching out and touching his shoulder.

"Cas, your brothers and sisters are dying. We're this close to the apocalypse and I know that it all has to be taking a toll on you. While I appreciate you finally being honest with me, there didn't have to be a deal. You didn't have to tell me the truth so that I would help you. All you had to do was ask." She said.

He looked surprised at her.

"You would just help if I asked?" he questioned, confused as his eyebrows knitted together.

"You might want to try it someday, it might actually work out for you." she said with a wry grin.

He sighed and looked down at his hands.

"Well now I'm embarrassed. I should have gone with that approach first." He said.

"Yes, you should have. Now… do you think you can return me to America?" she asked, still smiling.

Castiel looked up at her and nodded slowly, reaching out to touch her shoulder. Elena caught her hand and he looked surprised as she held it in both of hers.

"I will help you figure out what is going on, Cas. I promise." She said.

He stared at her for a moment.

"Thank you." he said, nodding once.

They stood, Elena still holding onto his hand. They disappeared and reappeared in a familiar place. But it wasn't at all where she expected for them to be.

"Why are we here?" she asked, as she looked up at the familiar clocktower that loomed over the town square of Mystic Falls.

"Angels can hear prayers even when they're unspoken. They can see deep desires even when they're hidden away. I know that you realize what lies ahead for you and the likelihood that you may not see any of your friends and family here for a long time. I'm offering you a chance to see them again." Cas said.

Elena looked back at him with a shocked expression. Suddenly, she couldn't help it anymore. She launched forward and threw her arms around his neck, holding him tightly. Cas stood there frozen for a few moments.

"Thank you." she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.

Cas finally relaxed and hesitantly wrapped his arms around her back, hugging her awkwardly. She laughed as she pulled away.

"I have it on good authority that they are all in there." Cas said, pointing at Mystic Grill.

"Well… that makes things easy." She said, smiling at him as she wiped the tears away.

"I will wait here for you to be finished. Take as long as you require." He nodded, looking at the ground.

"I appreciate this more than you will ever know, Cas." She said, smiling at him before turning to walk away.

* * *

Dean and Sam crossed the street, both of them looking unamused and ready to give up.

"Oh, man, we've been spooking this town for hours. No demons, no black smoke. I say we hit Victoria's Secret and get our peep on, huh?" Dean suggested.

Sam rolled his eyes and noticed something in a house..

"Hey. Three o'clock. Kid in the window." Sam said, nodding towards it.

Dean looked up and stopped short.

"Am I crazy or is he looking at us?" Sam asked.

"It's 'cause we've seen him before." Dean said.

"We have?" Sam questioned.

"Newspaper. Cole Griffith, the last person to die in this town." Dean confirmed.

The little boy, Cole, flickered and vanished. Dean and Sam exchanged a look before turning to walk to the house.

* * *

Elena sighed as she entered the Grill. It seemed as though the whole room froze when she walked in. Everyone turned to face her and she could barely muster up the courage to meet the eyes of her friends and family. When Cas said that everyone was in there, he meant everyone. Jeremy, Alaric, Bonnie, Caroline, Tyler, Matt, Stefan, and Damon were all crowded around a large table. Jeremy was the first to stand, staring at her as if she was a ghost.

"Elena?" he asked as he approached her at the same time as she reached the table.

"Hey Jer." She said with a small smile.

He yanked her into a hug and she sighed, wrapping her arms around him as well.

"We thought you were dead. It's been so long since we heard from you." he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm sorry… it's just been so busy. Supernatural crap and all that." she said apologetically.

He drew away to look at her.

"How did you get here?" he asked.

"You don't want to know." She said, laughing slightly as she looked around at everyone else.

Suddenly, she found that she was being passed from one person to the next. Damon was last, standing up hesitantly as if he didn't know what reaction to expect from her.

"I'm not staying for long, Damon. I don't want to spend what time I do have here fighting." She sighed, leaning in to hug him.

He hugged her back, obviously relieved at her response to him. She immediately found herself sat down between Jeremy and Caroline.

"Where have you been? What have you been doing?" Caroline asked.

"I've been everywhere and we've been doing hunting stuff. I'm with Castiel, the angel, right now. He's outside waiting for me. He knew… well… I guess I might as well tell you. A lot of serious shit is about to go down in the hunter world and it's going to be a while before I can see any of you. I'm sorry for that but it's true. So Cas brought me here to have a few minutes with you. It's… quite amazing of him really." Elena said, reaching over to take her brother's hand with a smile.

"So, what? Is this your final goodbye?" Damon asked.

"No, not by any means. It's just a visit for now." She nodded, smiling around at them. "So I don't want to talk about supernatural anything. Tell me about all of the gossip that's happened since I was here last." Elena said, nodding.

"Well… Dana is pregnant." Caroline shrugged.

"The Originals have officially established themselves a place in the town, becoming upstanding citizens." Damon said, grimacing.

"And… amazingly enough, absolutely nothing weird has happened since the Esther thing." Bonnie nodded.

"Also, there are about a thousand different theories as to where you've gone." Alaric threw in.

"Ooh, this sounds interesting. What are some of the theories?" Elena asked, leaning forward.

"Rehab." Jeremy said.

"Boarding school." Matt.

"Graduated early and went to college." Bonnie.

"L.A. to become an actress." Caroline.

"L.A. to become a prostitute." Damon said, smirking.

"Las Vegas to become a showgirl." Stefan.

"A nunnery to become a nun." Bonnie said, causing Elena to burst into laughter.

"I think that's the best one!" she said, giggling madly.

Everyone else laughed with her and, in her heart, she thanked Castiel once again for this reunion.

* * *

Mrs. Griffith, Cole's mother, walked into his old room, clutching her bathrobe for dear life.

"Cole?" she questioned hesitantly. "It's Mom. Your dad thinks I'm crazy. Are you here? A picture frame fell over. I could have sworn it was you, baby. Are you still here with me?"

A soccer ball that was sitting on the dresser started to spin, causing Mrs. Griffith to stare. The ball suddenly flew past her and bounced off the door. She put her hands to her head with wide eyes.

"Oh, my god!" she cried as she turned to leave the room. Cole stood by the dressed throwing more balls at Sam and Dean as they walked into his room.

"Stop! How are you doing that?" Dean asked, ducking the balls.

"Who are you?" Cole demanded.

"Relax, Cole. It's okay." Sam said, his hands up in surrender.

"How do you know my name?" the boy demanded.

"Look, this isn't gonna be easy to hear, but...you're… dead. You're a spirit. Us too." Sam said.

Dean glanced back at Sam, surprised at his lack of tact.

"Yeah, thanks, Haley Joel. I know I'm dead. What do you want?" Cole snapped, shocking them both.

"We just want to talk." Dean said hesitantly.

"About what?" Cole asked.

* * *

Mrs. Griffith poured herself a glass of vodka as they entered the kitchen. Cole leaned on the wall watching her. Dean and Sam sat at the table watching him.

"I was outside all morning." Cole said softly, turning around to talk to them.

"They tell you to be careful when it's cold." He said.

"Cold air can cause an asthma attack?" Dean

Cole nodded, shrugging. "But then I was in my room. It happened so fast. I called out for my mom, but nothing came out. Everything started spinning, and then I was just standing there, looking down at my body."

He leaned on the table.

"And that's when you saw the man?" Sam asked.

"Creepy old guy in a black suit. He wanted me to go with him, but..." Cole looked back at his mother.

"I didn't want to go." he said sadly.

"Reaper." Sam said, looking at Dean, who nodded.

"How'd you get rid of him?" Sam asked.

"I didn't. The black smoke did." Cole said.

"Black smoke?" Dean said.

"It was everywhere. I hid in the closet, and when I came out, it was gone, and so was he." Cole said.

Dean leaned forward. "Do you know where the smoke went?" he asked.

"No. But I know where it is." Cole said.

The lights suddenly start flickering and Cole jumped. Dean looked up to see Mrs. Griffith looked around.

"They're back." Cole said, panicking.

"Who?" Dean asked.

Cole vanished before he said another word. Dean and Sam looked around, their eyes wide as a blast of wind hit them in the face. Something white and human-shaped flew through the room and up the stairs.

"Another reaper." Sam said, looking at Dean.

They both jumped up to go to the stairs.

"Hey! Hey! Wait! We need to talk to you!" Dean called

The brothers stared as a woman descends the stairs.

"Dean." She murmured.

Sam glanced at Dean, who looked confused.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

"We go way back." she said, nodding.

The woman walked into the kitchen with Dean and Sam following, before she turned around.

"You don't remember me?" she asked.

"Honestly, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a girl say that... you're gonna have to freshen my memory." Dean said.

She stepped forward, reaching up to place her hand on his cheek. Dean stood still as flashbacks flew through his head. Things that he'd never remembered before flashed before his eyes. When she pulled away, he watched her for a moment.

"Tessa." He said.

"That's one of my names, yeah." She shrugged.

"So, you do know her." Sam confirmed.

"From the hospital after the accident." Dean said.

"The accident with Dad?" he asked.

Dean nodded.

"So, this is the reaper that came after you."

"Yeah." Dean said, looking at the ground.

Tessa turned to look at Sam.

"Well, this was fun." She said before turning back to Dean.

"Now, if you'll excuse me…" she said, turning away to walk out but Dean stoppedher.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, you can't… you can't take the kid." He said pleadingly.

"Why?" she asked.

"Demons are in town, that's why. They've already snatched your reaper pal. The kid knows where." Dean said.

"So?" Tessa asked, sounding uncaring.

"So, you should shag ass. For all we know, they could try and snatch you, too." Dean suggested.

"Except that this town is off the rails." Tessa pointed out.

Mrs. Griffith came walking out of the dining room, picking something off a side table before turnign to leave.

"And someone has to set it straight." She said, gesturing around.

"Yeah, we understand that, but these are special circumstances." Dean said.

"What? Your whole angel-demon dance-off? I could care less. I just want to do my job." Tessa shrugged.

"Right, yeah, and, look, we want to help you do your job. So, if you would just bail town…" Sam said.

"No." she said, shaking her head.

"Well, then, could you hold off until we fix this? Please." Dean asked.

Tessa sighed. "All right, but just so we're clear, when I start reaping again, I'm starting with the kid."

"Understood. I'll find him." Sam said, turning to walk upstairs.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. What…?" Dean stopped him.

Sam turned back around, staring at his brother.

"What are you gonna say to him?" Dean asked.

"Whatever I have to." Sam shrugged.

Dean and Tessa watched as he walked up the stairs.

* * *

Sam walked into the room, looking around. He ast down next to the open closet, Cole barely visible inside.

"This all must be pretty overwhelming, huh? Pretty scary, too." Sam said, staring down at the carpet.

"The worst is my mom." Cole sighed miserably.

"Must be hard seeing her like this." Sam nodded.

Cole leaned out of the shadow and looked at Sam.

"She's always coming in here, talking to me, telling me how sad she is. I knock some stuff over to let her know I'm here, but... she only gets sadder." He said softly.

Sam laughed a little. "Well, you might want to ease up on the flying soccer balls." He joked.

"I'm not telling you where the smoke is." Cole said quickly, leaning back into the shadows once more.

Sam thought for a moment.

"Hey. What if I told you that if you helped me, you wouldn't have to leave here? Ever?" he asked.

"What about the one downstairs?" Cole said hesitantly, not entirely believing him.

"Tessa? Oh, she wouldn't bother you. No reaper would. You could just stay here with your family for as long as you wanted." Sam shrugged.

"You can do that?" Cole asked.

"Yeah, you bet I can do that." Sam assured him.

"You swear?" he said.

Sam hesitated before nodding.

"I swear." He said.

* * *

"I'll tell you, life is funny." Tessa said, sighing lightly.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"You and me, together again." She said, her eyes sparkling as she looked over at him.

"Are you… are you making a move on me?" Dean asked, leaning away from her.

Tessa shook her head.

"Everyone knows you're with that guardian of yours, Dean. You're just the one that got away, Dean. You'd be surprised how little that happens to me." she said.

"Can I tell you something between you and me?" he asked after a moment

"Who am I gonna tell?" Tessa asked, laughing lightly.

Dean nodded.

"After our little, uh, experience...for that whole year, I felt like I had this... hole in my gut...like I was missing something. I didn't know what. Do you know what it was?" Dean asked.

She simply listened to him.

"It was you. The pain of losing my father and Sammy. I just...I wish I had gone with you for good. But I guess things are different now. As soon as I met Elena after I was brought up from hell… it all changed." Dean

"There's also the angels on your shoulder." Tessa reminded him.

"So, you know about that, huh? Well, hey, don't get me wrong. I mean, most the ones I've met are dicks with wings. But still... you know, I've done things. Horrible things. And someone upstairs still decided to give me a second chance. It just makes me feel... I don't know." Dean shrugged.

"Uh-huh." Tessa said skeptically.

Sam clears his throat and they both looked to see that he had just come downstairs, Cole standing behind him.

"Hey, guys." Sam he said.

"Hey, Cole. I'm Tessa. I'm not going to hurt you." Tessa said, standing up to crouch down.

"It's okay, Cole. Just tell them what you told me." Sam urged him.

"I saw the black smoke at my funeral." Cole said.

Sam glanced at Dean.

"At the cemetery?" he asked.

"At the funeral home. It was everywhere." Cole said.

The lights began to flicker and Dean looked at Tessa.

"You doing that?" Dean asked.

"No." Tessa said, looking around with confusion.

The front door slammed open and black smoke poured through, filling the house. Everyone ducked as it rushed over them. When it suddenly disappeared, everyone looked around. Tessa was gone.

"Tessa!" Dean shouted, looking around.

"Cole, you okay?" Sam asked the boy, satisfied when he nodded.

"Well, how the hell are we supposed to fight that?" Dean snapped.

"I don't know. Learn some ghost moves?" Sam shrugged.

"By tonight? Yeah, sure. I'll meet you back at Mr. Miyagi's." Dean scoffed.

"Who's Mr. Miyagi?" Cole asked.

Sam looked between Dean and Cole with a thoughtful look.

* * *

The three of them were standing on the porch and Dean was concentrating on a miniature windmill.

"It's not gonna move if you don't concentrate." Cole piped up.

"I am concentrating." Dean growled.

Sam raised his eyebrows as Dean let out a breath and glared at the windmill. It gave a small, slight turn and Dean smiled triumphantly.

"Ah, here we go, baby." He said, rubbing his hands together.

The windmill stopped suddenly and Cole looks at Dean.

"You pull a muscle?" he asked, causing Sam to burst into laughter as Dean eyed the kid.

"All right, Yoda, let's see what you got." He said, gesturing to it.

Cole looked at the windmill with a bored expression. It began spinning and didn't stop. The porch swing started swinging as the wind chimes moved to let out their music. Sam's laughter escalated.

"Dude! You are so Amityville!" Dean exclaimed, awestruck.

Cole grinned. "This isn't even the good stuff." He said.

* * *

Dean watched as Cole punched Sam in the stomach, causing him to fold over as he clutched at his abdomen.

"See? If you want to hit something, you just got to get mad." Cole nodded.

"Yeah, got it." Sam wheezed as he straightened up.

Cole looked at Dean. "Now you try. Hit me." he instructed.

"Uh, I think I'll stick to just picking on somebody my own size." Dean said, indicating to Sam.

Cole launched out and whacked Dean in the face, causing Sam to laugh. Dean rubbed his face as Cole crossed to Sam.

"Hit me as hard as you can." He requested.

"Dude, I'm not gonna do Fight Club with a twelve-year-old." Sam said, shaking his head.

Cole punched Sam and he stumbled backwards, shaking it off.

"All right, cut it out." he said.

"Make me." Cole laughed, taking another swing.

Sam blocked it and swung back but Cole disappeared, reappearing behind Dean, who whirled around.

"Whoa. Whoa, you got to teach us that." Dean said, impressed.

* * *

Elena sighed softly as they walked out of the Grill. She'd spent a whole hour with them, laughing and joking as they ignored the fact that she was going to say goodbye again soon. They were all solemn as she turned to face them.

"I'm sorry I have to go… but the world needs saving and I happen to be the protector of the two boys who have to do it." she said.

They all understood, as she gave them the condensed version of everything that Cas told her earlier. One by one, they all hugged her goodbye.

"I love you all. Please stay safe. I'll try to keep in contact this time." she said tearfully.

They all nodded and she smiled before turning to walk across the street towards the park. Castiel was sitting on a bench looking around with a stone-face. He looked up at her as she approached.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

He nodded and stood, holding out his hand instead of simply touching her shoudler or her forehead. Elena looked back at her Mystic Falls family one more time as she placed her hand in his. They disappeared from her sight and she looked around as they reappeared in a motel room.

"Where is this?" she asked.

"This is the place that you must stay until the Winchesters finish with their current job. Can I trust you to stay here if I have to go?" Cas asked.

Elena nodded slowly and suddenly found herself alone in the room.

* * *

As they walked up to the building, Sam and Dean noticed that the walls of the funeral home were covered in glowing blue diagrams, mostly six-sided figures, some in circles and some in squares, all with lines through them and squiggles inside the triangles. They crossed the street to the building, noticing that no one else seemed to see the diagrams.

"This looks like New Jack City. Can nobody can see this?" Dean asked, gesturing to the building.

"Maybe it's demon invisible ink. Only see it in the veil." Sam shrugged.

"Any idea what it's for?"

"We'll find out." Sam said.

The door to the funeral home was standign open and Sam walked in, Dean following him. They saw nothing as they walked through, shrugging at each other. When they turned around at one point to see a large room, they saw a diagram drawn on the floor of the open space in the room. Tessa and an old man were lying in the middle of the circle. Sam and Dean walked forward for a closer look. A man was standing guard on the other end, not having seen them.

"Dude, check me out." Dean whispered, taking a few steps forward before he vanished. He reappeared behind the man and tappd him on the shoulder. When the man turned around, Dean punched him in the face and then disappeared when the man attempted to swing back. A hand tapped his shoulder again and this time it was Sam who punched him. Dean reappeared on the man's othe rsdie and punched him once more as Sam kneed him in the chest. The man scrambled away as Dean and Sam kicked at him. When he was hiding behind a coffin, Dean and Sam followed him.

"You know, this ghost thing, it's, it's kind of rad." Dean said with a grin.

Another man came out from behind a curtain, carrying a chain and making pained noises. The first man scrambled over the coffin and out of the way. The second man pulled the chain tight and hooks it to a candle stand.

"It's iron." Sam said.

The demon let go of the chain, his hands are smoking and Dean and Sam looked around as the chain surrounded them.

A third demon comes into the room, his eyes turning white as he walked..

"Boys. Find the place okay?" Alastair asked.

* * *

Elena paced the motel room impatiently, wondering what the hell could be going on that pulled Cas away. It worried her that the angel was so worried when he left. She sighed and sat on the bed, allowing her mind to go back to his explanation so she'd stop worrying. She, Elena Gilbert, was a guardian. She was created to protect someone else, not to be protected. She was no longer a damsel in distress. She was strong and she could protect herself too.

* * *

Alastair held a scythe, turning it over in his hands as he grinned at the boys. He'd had his fun shooting them with rock salt a few times but it quickly bored him.

"Anyhoo..." he said as they watched him closely.

"Moon's in the right spot. The board is set. Let's get started, shall we?" Alastair asked, walking over to the reaper trap.

"You're gonna kill a reaper with that? It's little on the nose, don't you think?" Dean scoffed.

"Is it? An old friend lent it to me. You know, he doesn't really ride a pale horse? But he does have three amigos." Alastair informed them. "And they're just jonesing for the apocalypse."

He kneeled next to the old man reaper.

"It pays to have friends in low places." He explained, grabbing the reaper by the collar and hauling him up.

"Don't you think?" he asked.

Alastair puts the scythe behind the reaper's neck and began chanting in Latin.

"Hic cruor messorius, illud sigillum, quod luciferem reverendum obstringit, aperiat ut resurgat!"

He pulled the scythe and a white-blue light filled the room. He slowly lowers the dead reaper to the floor before straightenin up.

Sam looked up, noticing a chandelier hanging above the reaper trap.

Alastair stepped over the dead reaper and grabbed a conscious Tessa by the shoulder, holding the scythe to her neck. Sam glanced between Dean and the chandelier.

"Stop!" Tessa cried, struggling against Alastair.

Both Dean and Sam stared at the chandelier and concentrated on bringing it down.

"Hic cruor messorius…" Alastair began reciting in Latin once again.

Pamela stood, walking to the middle of the room as she looked around without seeing.

"I know you're here. What's the matter, you reeking son of a bitch? You afraid of a skirt?" she taunted.

Suddenly she sensed the demon very close to her. She turned and ran to Sam, leaning over his body to his ear.

"Vis, vis, vis!" she began chanting before the demon grabbed her and dragged her up. She kicked at him, attempting to fight her way out of his grip.

"Son of a bitch!" she shouted.

* * *

Elena's head flew up when she heard the shout. It sounded too familiar. She quickly slammed her way out of the motel room and ran towards the room that she heard the sound of fighting coming from. When she got to the door, she tried it to realize that it was locked. She sighed and backed up, willing to try something. Her leg slammed forward, kicking the door open with ease. She smiled slightly before running inside. Dean and Sam were lying on the beds unconscious. But her first concern was Pamela, who was fighting with a demon.

* * *

"… illud sigillum, quod luciferem reverendum obstringit…" Alastair recited.

The chandelier began shaking with the force that Sam and Dean were mentally applying to it. Tessa watched them with pleading eyes, praying for it to work..

"… aperiat ut…" Alastair said.

The chandelier began to fall.

"… resurgat!" Alastair shouted the last word just as the chandelier crashed to the floor and broke the reaper trap. Tessa vanished and reappeared at the candle stand, unhooking the chain.

"Bye-bye." Dean said before they all vanished.

Tessa and Dean reappeared on a street.

"Where's your brother?" Tessa asked, looking around.

"I'll go find him. You get out of here." Dean instructed her, turning to run off.

* * *

Elena ran forward to pull the demon off of Pamela, throwing it into the wall. Pamela ran over to Sam, finding her way easily, and leaned down in his ear to whisper to him.

"Animum vult decipi, ergo…" she murmured

The demon threw Elena across the room, knocking over candles and the coffeemaker. Pamela turned just as the demon walked up to her and pulled out a knife, stabbing her in the stomach.

"No!" Elena exclaimed just as Sam sat up.

She watched with horror as he raised his hand automatically and flung the demon against the wall. He stood and easily exorcised the demon, glaring at it. The host slumped to the floor, dead.

Elena ran to Pamela, crouching down to her level. The woman was laughing.

"What's so funny?" Sam asked, leaning down next to Elena.

"I can't die… not in this town." She laughed, confusing Elena.

Pamela takes her hand away from the injury where there was no blood.

"Pamela…" Sam began.

"Quit your worrying, grumpy. How about you make me a drink, huh?" she requested, pushing herself up to a standing position.

"You need a doctor." Sam argued.

"Make me a drink, Sam." Pamela instructed, causing Sam to swallow hard and walk over to the fridge.

Elena helped Pamela to the bed and, hoping beyond hope, pressed her hands to the woman's stomach.

"You know as well as I do, Elena, that it's not going to work." Pamela murmured, making Elena sigh heavily.

* * *

Dean walked down one of the many alleys, looking around.

"You can't run." Alastair's voice echoed and Dean turned to see him standing in the alley behind him.

"Dean." He nodded.

As he advanced, Dean backed up, not wanting to get too close to him.

"Not from me. I'm inside that angsty little noggin of yours." Alastair said, pointing at his head.

Suddenly blue-white lightning struck Alastair and he vanished.

"What the hell?" Dean demanded, wide-eyed.

"Guess again." A familiar voice said.

Dean whirled around to see Castiel standing there.

"You and Sam just saved a seal. We captured Alastair. Dean, this was a victory." Castiel assured him as Dean paced the alley.

"Well, no thanks to you." Dean snapped.

"What makes you say that?" Castiel asked.

"You took Elena when we really needed her help. You weren't there for the rock salt shit." He growled.

"That script on the funeral home… I couldn't penetrate it." Castiel said.

"That was angel-proofing." Dean asked.

"Why do you think I recruited you and Sam in the first place?" Castiel asked.

"You recruited us?" Dean questioned.

"That wasn't your friend Bobby who called, Dean. It wasn't Bobby who told Sam about the seal." Castiel said.

"That was you?" Dean asked.

Castiel looked down.

"If you want our help, why the hell didn't you just ask?" Dean asked.

Castiel chuckled lightly and Dean was taken aback by him laughing.

"Elena said the same words to me, only she was much nicer about it. I didn't ask because whatever I ask, you seem to do the exact opposite." Castiel

"So, what now, huh? The people in this town, they just gonna start dying again?" Dean asked, gesturing around them.

"Yes." The angel nodded.

"These are good people. What, you think you can make a few exceptions?" he said.

"To everything there is a season."

"You made an exception for me. And Elena" Dean said.

Castiel paused, then looks at Dean.

"You're different. You're both different." He said before disappearing.

"Dean? I could use your help." Tessa said, appearing next to him.

* * *

Mrs. Griffith was looking at a memory book as she cried. Cole was standing there watching as Dean and Tessa appeared in the room.

"Hey, Cole." Tessa said.

Cole jumped and turns around.

"Tell your brother thanks for nothing." He said, narrowing his eyes at Dean.

Dean looked down, still feeling uncomfortable with the fake promise that Sam made to the kid.

"Look at her, Cole." Tessa said, pointing at his mom.

Cole glanced back.

"Do you see how unhappy she is?" Tessa asked.

"That's why I want to stay with her." Cole said pleadingy.

"As long as she can feel you, she'll be in pain, because she can't let go." Tessa said.

He glanced back again, this time his gaze lasting longer.

"Because you won't let go of her." she said.

"Why won't anybody tell me what's on the other side?" Cole asked, turning to her.

"Maybe nobody wants to ruin the surprise." Tessa shrugged, causing Dean to look away.

"That's not an answer." Cole accused her.

"She won't answer you, Cole. Reapers never do. But trust me. Staying here is a whole lot worse than anything over there." Dean said.

"Why?" Cole asked.

"Because one day, your family will be gone, and there'll be nothing left here for you. It's okay to be scared." Tessa answered.

"I'm not scared." Cole scoffed, shaking his head.

"We're all scared. That's the big secret. We're all scared." Dean said softly.

Silence filled the room.

"Are you coming?" Cole asked after a few moments.

It was Tessa's turn to look down.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll be there sooner than you think." Dean sighed.

Cole looks back at his mother one last time before he walked towards Tessa. She bent down and hugged him, closing her eyes as he was enveloped in a white light and disappeared.

Mrs. Griffith looked up, already looking less sad.

Tessa turned to face Dean.

"Look out for that boy." He instructed.

"Look out for yourself, Dean." Tessa shot back.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, confused.

"I've been around death from the get-go. You know what I see most? Lies. He's in a better place. At least they're together now. You all lie to yourselves, Dean, 'cause like you said, deep down, you're all scared. Stop lying to yourself, Dean." Tessa said.

"What?" he questioned.

"The angels have something good in store for you. A second chance. Really? Cause I'm pretty sure, deep down, you know something nasty's coming down the road. Trust your instincts, Dean. There's no such thing as miracles." Tessa said.

"What are you saying?" Dean asked, even more confused.

She said nothing and a moment later, she was gone.

* * *

Sam and Elena watched as Pamela sat on the edge of Dean's bed, one hand to the stab wound and leaning on the other.

"Imum vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. Vis, vis, vis." She said softly.

She stood slowly to move to the other bed. Sam jumped up to help her.

"Hey, we just got to talk to Tessa, that's all. Get her to hold off reaping till we get you better." Sam said.

"I'm pretty sure she's started up again." Pamela gasped as blood began pouring over hand.

Elena bit her lip and walked to the bed. They all started as Dean took a deep breath and sat up. Elena looked back at him and gave him a sad look as she gestured him over. He stood and walked to the bed, his eyes widening when he took in Pamela's condition.

"What happened?" he demanded.

"Dean, where's Tessa?" Sam asked, looking up at him.

Elena didn't bother to ask who Tessa was even though she was very confused.

"She's..." Dean trailed off, the news obviously not good.

Pamela slid off her sunglasses.

"Pamela, I'm so sorry." Sam began.

"Stop." She said.

"You don't deserve this." he said miserably.

"Yeah, I don't. I told you I didn't want anything to do with this. Do me a favor? Tell that bastard Bobby Singer… to go to hell for ever introducing me to you two in the first place." Pamela grunted, leaning her head back as she began coughing.

"Take it easy, Pamela. If it's any consolation, you're going to a better place." Dean said, kneeling next to Elena.

She turned her head towards Dean.

"You're lying." she accused him.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look.

"But what the hell, right? Everybody's got to go sometime." Pamela shrugged.

Then she turned and beckoned Sam closer.

"Come here." She instructed him.

Sam leaned in close and she whispered softly in his ear so that the other two couldn't hear.

"I know what you did to that demon, Sam." She murmured.

Sam's eyes widened.

"I can feel what's inside of you. If you think you have good intentions, think again." She warned before she began coughing again.

She leaned back against the headboard, blood trickling out of her mouth as she became still.

"Pamela?" Elena said, reaching out to take her hand.

Her head slid down.

"Pamela!" Dean said loudly before looking at Sam.

"What did she say to you?" he demanded.

Sam simply looked away, looking ashamed and scared at the same time.

* * *

It was a few days later and they were entering the motel room in Pontiac, back where it all began. Sam and Dean were in their suits and Elena was wearing a black dress with lace sleeves as well as a pair of black tights and black heeled ankle boots. A black wool coat was thrown over her arm as it wasn't that cold outside.

"Ah, home crappy home." Dean sighed as Sam flipped on the lights.

"Winchester and Winchester and Gilbert." A voice startled them from inside the room.

Uriel and Castiel were standing there waiting.

"Oh come on." Dean growled, glaring at them.

"You are needed." Uriel said.

"Needed? We just got back from needed." Dean snapped.

"Now, you mind your tone with me." Uriel said, glaring back at him.

"No, you mind your damn tone with us." Elena said, stepping in front of Dean automatically.

"We just got back from Pamela's funeral." Sam said, also a bit angry.

"Pamela. You know, psychic Pamela? You remember her. Cas, you remember her. You burned her eyes out. Remember that? Good times. Yeah, then she died saving one of your precious seals. So maybe you can stop pushing us around like chess pieces for five freaking minutes!" Dean said, glaring between the two angels.

"We raised you out of hell for our purposes." Uriel said.

"Yeah, what were those again? What exactly did you want from me?" Dean demanded.

"Start with gratitude."

"Oh." Dean said, shaking his head with disbelief.

"Dean, we know this is difficult to understand." Castiel began.

"And we…" Uriel said, interrupting him as he gave him a significant look "… don't care. Now, seven angels have been murdered, all of them from our garrison. The last one was killed tonight."

"Demons? How they doing it?" Dean asked as Elena shot Cas a sympathetic look.

"We don't know." Uriel said.

"I'm sorry, but what do you want us to do about it? I mean, a demon with the juice to ice angels has to be out of our league, right?" Sam asked.

"We can handle the demons, thank you very much." Uriel snapped.

"Once we find whoever it is." Castiel said.

"So you need our help hunting a demon?" Dean asked.

"Not quite. We have Alastair." Castiel said.

"Great. He should be able to name your trigger man." Sam said.

"But he won't talk. Alastair's will is very strong. We've arrived at an impasse." Castiel sighed.

"Yeah, well, he's like a black belt in torture. I mean, you guys are out of your league." Dean said, smirking at them.

"That's why we've come to his student. You happen to be the most qualified interrogator we've got." Uriel said.

Elena realized instantly what they were saying as Dean looked down at the floor.

"Dean, you are our best hope." Castiel said softly, sounding extremely regretful.

"No. No way." Elena said, shaking her head.

"You can't ask me to do this, Cas. Not this." Dean said pleadingly.

Uriel walks up to Elena and Dean.

"Who said anything about asking?" he said, reaching out to touch them.

Sam whirled around, realizing that he was suddenly left alone.

"Dammit!" he growled.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! I also hope that the explanation wasn't too strange or hard to understand. Let me know and I'll explain it more if I have to. Review please!**


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to DrawingMyHeartOut, Nyssandria, slayerdiaries, RHatch89, Dark Alana, and TheElegantFaerie for reviewing!**

**To TheElegantFaerie, I don't get a lot of sleep at night so I spend a good five hours at night writing so that's how I get new chapters up so quickly sometimes.**

**One thing:**

**1. READ THIS PLEASE! I figured out a new thing to do for the 300 review mark! Anyone can ask me any question in their review for this chapter and this chapter only and I will definitely answer it in the author's note of the next chapter. Any question goes, whether it's about what's happening now or about something that will happen in the future. Don't be afraid to ask a question because I will love answering each and every one of them. For those who are concerned with reading answers, I'll put a spoiler alert warning if they reveal something that will happen in the future. It doesn't even have to be about the story, if you want. It can be whatever you want it to be.**

* * *

Elena struggled against Uriel's hold on her as they appeared in an old abandoned factory.

"Let me go!" she snapped, trying to pull away from him.

"Hey." Dean growled, starting forward to pull Uriel away from her.

"I'm not letting her go. She's a sneaky one and I am not going to take the chance that she will walk you right out of here." Uriel said, his grip tightening on her arm.

Elena continued to work on wrenching her arm out of his grip.

"Uriel…" Castiel began, looking upon the scene with regretful eyes.

"I did not ask for your opinion, Castiel." The other angel said, pulling Elena to a chair and throwing her down in it roughly.

"Hey!" Dean shouted louder, glaring at Uriel.

"Stay there or I will tie you down." Uriel threatened, pointing at her before grabbing Dean's arm and pulling him over to a door with a window.

Elena turned her head to stare at Castiel, wondering why he wasn't doing a single thing about Uriel. He avoided her eyes as he looked at Dean and Uriel

"This devil's trap is old Enochian. He's bound completely." He said.

"Fascinating." Dean said, turning away from the door and walking to Elena.

He reached out his hand and she took it slowly, staring at Uriel hesitantly as he pulled her up to a standing position.

"Where's the door?" Dean demanded.

"Where are you going?" Castiel asked, stepping forward

"Hitch back to Cheyenne, thank you very much." he replied, turning to pull Elena out of the room.

They walked past Uriel but he appeared in front of them before they could make it to the door.

"Angels are dying, boy." He said.

"Everybody's dying these days. And hey, I get it. You're all-powerful. You can make me do whatever you want. But you can't make me do this." Dean said.

"This is too much to ask, I know. But we have to ask it." Castiel said regretfully.

Elena turned to look at Castiel as Dean continued to glare at Uriel.

"We want to talk to Cas… alone." She said, turning back to Uriel, who stared at her.

"Imagine that, a puny little guardian telling me what to do." He scoffed, fixing his suit before looking at the trenchcoat-wearing angel.

"I think I'll go seek revelation. We might have some further orders." He said.

"Well, get some donuts while you're out." Dean said, narrowing his eyes at the angel.

Uriel laughed, taking them both by surprise. "Ah, this one just won't quit, will he? I think I'm starting to like you, boy." He admitted before vanished.

Dean kept his hold on Elena's hand as they turned to look at Castiel.

"You guys don't walk enough. You're gonna get flabby." Dean commented.

Cas didn't react, just staring at them.

"You know, I'm starting to think junkless has a better sense of humor than you do." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Uriel's the funniest angel in the garrison. Ask anyone." Castiel informed them, sounding completely serious.

Dean shook his head and walked with Elena up to the angel.

"What's going on, Cas? Since when does Uriel put a leash on you?" Dean asked.

"My superiors have begun to question my sympathies." Castiel said, his eyes falling to the ground.

"Your sympathies?" Elena asked.

"I was getting too close to the humans in my charge. You. They were watching as I revealed everything to you, Elena. They feel I've begun to express emotions. The doorways to doubt. This can impair my judgment." He said.

Elena scoffed and shook her head. The angels had it so backwards that she couldn't even begin to imagine how their minds worked.

"Well, tell Uriel, or whoever...you do not want me doing this, trust me." Dean said.

"Want it, no. But I have been told we need it." Castiel sighed, looking up at them.

"You ask me to open that door and walk through it, you will not like what walks back out." he said, squeezing Elena's hand as she could hear fear in his voice and the tears shining in his eyes.

"For what it's worth, I would give anything not to have you do this." the angel said, sounding one hundred percent truthful about this claim.

Dean sighed and closed his eyes, resigning himself to the situation.

"No." Elena said.

The two males looked at her.

"No you don't have to do this. Cas, please don't make him do this." Elena said pleadingly.

"I cannot stop it, Elena." he said.

She was interrupted from any more argument when Uriel reappeared.

"It's time, boy." He said, gesturing to a sheet-covered cart.

Dean turned to him and then looked over at the cart. He sighed and Elena felt her panic rising.

"Wait!" she cried, turning him around and pulling him to her.

He clutched at her as if he was holding onto his lifeline.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She whispered, stroking his hair softly as she embraced him.

"Please…" he whispered, not really sure what he was pleading for.

"I'll be here. I'll be right here. I can't stop this but I can be here for you. Whatever happens, whatever state you are in when you come out of that room, I will be here." She promised, tears overflowing from her eyes.

Dean pulled away and looked down at her as the salty drops streamed down her face.

"I don't know if I can do this." he said, sounding broken already.

Elena reached up, stroking his cheeks softly.

"I am here for you. I will always be here." She said.

Then she pulled him down to her level, pressing her lips to his as she fought back the overwhelming sobs that threatened to escape from her throat. He kissed her back fervently, both of them trying to hold on as tightly as they could. When they broke apart, he took a deep breath and turned back to the cart. Elena turned to the angels as he walked to it. Both of them refused to meet her eyes as Dean wheeled it to the door and pulled it open.

As the door closed, they heard laughing and then the demon broke out into a muffled song.

"Heaven, I'm in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak. I seem to find the happiness I seek, when we're out together dancing cheek to cheek..." Alastair sang as he watched Dean reveal the torture instruments.

"I'm sorry. This is a very serious, very emotional situation for you. I shouldn't laugh, it's just that… I mean, are they serious? They sent you to torture me?" Alastair asked, chuckling.

"You got one chance. One. Tell me who's killing the angels. I want a name." Dean said, turning to him with steely eyes.

"You think I'll see all your scary toys and spill my guts?" the demon asked.

"Oh, you'll spill your guts, one way or another. I just didn't wanna ruin my shoes." Dean said, shrugging as he tried to sound unemotional.

"Oh, yeah." Alastair scoffed, shaking his head.

"Now answer the question."

"Or what? You'll work me over? But then, maybe you don't want to. Maybe you're, ah, scared to." He taunted, smirking at Dean.

"I'm here, aren't I?" he said, gesturing around the room.

"Not entirely. You left part of yourself back in the pit. Let's see if we can get the two of you back together again, shall we?" Alastair said, smiling deviously.

"You're gonna be disappointed." He said, walking over to the cart.

"You have not disappointed me so far. Come on. You gotta want a little payback for everything I did to you. For all the pokes and prods. Hm?" Alastair pressed him, tyring to get a rise out of him.

Dean stared down at the instruments with an impassive look

"No? Um...how about for all the things I did to your daddy?" he asked, trying a different road.

Dean's head snapped up and Alastair grinned.

* * *

Sam quickly opened the motel room door for Ruby, watching as she walked in.

"I can still smell them. Seriously, Sam, I'm not exactly dying to tangle with angels again." She said, wrinkling her nose as she stared around the room.

"I need you to find out where they took Dean." Sam requested.

"Not sure I see the problem. You know they have Alastair strung up six ways from Sunday. Dean cuts himself a slice, Al's reduced to a quivering heap, and the good guys get the goods. What's wrong with that?" Ruby asked.

"He can't do it." Sam said.

"Look, I get it. You don't want him going all torture master again." She scoffed, leaning against the table.

"No. I mean, he can't do it. He can't get the job done. Something happened to him downstairs, Ruby. He's not what he used to be. He's not strong enough." Sam said.

"And you are?" she asked.

"I will be." Sam nodded.

* * *

Elena sat in the chair with her arms crossed as the two angels stood perfectly still, Uriel staring out of a window and Castiel staring at the door.

"Real brave of you two, refusing to meet my eyes. I can see how warrior-like you are, not wanting to look at an insignificant eighteen-year-old girl." she snapped, glaring at Uriel mostly.

"You dare to taunt us?" Uriel asked, finally looking at her.

"What are you going to do?" she shot back, narrowing her eyes at him as she crossed her legs.

"We have the power to obliterate you. You can easily be replaced." He threatened.

Elena stared at him, knowing that she should have been afraid of the threat, that she should have backed down. But after spending so much time with Dean and Sam, she'd lost the ability to recognize when she should shut the hell up.

"Go ahead. Obliterate me. See how willing Dean is to work with you after that. See if he doesn't find a way to beat your ass into the ground. You need me more than I need you. You allowed for me to get to know the Winchesters before I received my powers? Well that's coming back to bite you in the ass because now we are a package deal. Have fun stopping the apocalypse if your hunters back out because you killed their guardian." Elena said, smirking at him.

Uriel glared at her but she could see that he knew she was right. His mouth formed a thin line as he turned back to the window. Castiel still refused to look at her.

"You know that you've left Sam alone, right? Who knows what he's doing right now. Why exactly did you feel the need to bring me here?" she demanded.

"Because we knew that Dean would have an easier time walking in there if he knew that he had you to walk back out to." Castiel said.

Elena shook her head and glared at the wall.

* * *

"I had your pop on my rack for close to a century." Alastair said tauntingly.

"You can't stall forever." Dean said, trying to ignore him.

"John Winchester. Made a good name for himself. A hundred years. After each session, I'd make him the same offer I made you. I'd put down my blade if he picked one up."

"Just give me the demon's name, Alastair." Dean said, looking down at his hands.

"But he said nein each and every time. Oh, damned if I couldn't break him." Alastair shrugged.

Dean slid off his leather jacket, throwing it over a table.

"Pulled out all the stops, but John, he was, well, made of something unique. The stuff of heroes. And then came Dean. Dean Winchester. I thought I was up against it again."

Dean reached out and drank from a bottle of whiskey that the angels were so polite to provide for him.

"But daddy's little girl, he broke. He broke in thirty. Oh, just not the man your daddy wanted you to be, huh, Dean?" he asked.

Dean put down the bottle and turned back to the cart of torture stuff.

"Now." Alastair said, smiling widely.

Dean reached out and picked up a syringe, filling it with a bottle of water with a rosary in it.

"Now we're getting somewhere. Holy water? Come on. Grasshopper, you're gonna have to get creative to impress me." Alastair said, laughing.

Dean finally looked up at him.

"You know something, Alastair? I could still dream. Even in hell. And over and over and over, you know what I dreamt? I dreamt of this moment." He said, noting that the demon looked a little nervous. "And believe me, I got a few ideas."

He approached the demon, squirting water out of the needle.

"Let's get started." He said.

* * *

Elena's head snapped up as screams emanated from the room. Her eyes flashed to Castiel and Uriel, who were looking at the door.

"It looks like we're finally getting somewhere." Uriel said, smirking.

"You son of a bitch." She snapped, glaring at him.

"Oh don't worry. I'm sure your boy is going to come out of there just fine." He said.

"If he comes out with anything, I hope it's with an urge to kill you." she shot back.

"Do you forget that humans can't kill angels?" Uriel asked, scoffing at her.

"Well apparently demons can." She snapped.

Something flashed in Uriel's eyes and he looked as though he would argue but he looked away instead. Elena's eyes darted over to Castiel to see him staring at Uriel with a confused expression before finally meeting her eyes. There was such sympathy and desperate regret in them that she couldn't help but not be angry with the angel. It was easy to keep all of her anger focused on Uriel, anyways, since he was such an asshole.

* * *

Ruby chanted in Latin, holding a lit candle to the edge of a map that sat on the table. Sam edged away as the fire spread around the map.

"Relax. The fire is our friend. Besides, the only part of the map we need is the 'where's Dean?' part. Out." she said, watching as the flames vanished.

The paper was charred except for a small circle in the middle that was untouched.

"There. Your brother's there. It's a good thing angels aren't concerned with hiding their dirty business. Not used to being spied on. I mean, who'd be stupid enough to try?" Ruby said, handing him the map.

"Ruby, it's been weeks. I need it." Sam sighed, putting it down and looking up at her.

"You don't seem too happy about it." Ruby said, smirking at him.

"You think I wanna do this? This is the last thing I…" he trailed off, sitting on the bed. "But I need to be strong enough."

Ruby walked over and straddled his lap, stroking his cheek.

"It's okay. It's okay, Sammy. You can have it." she cooed softly.

She kissed him as she pulled a knife from an ankle sheath and cut her arm, drawing blood. Sam looked up at her hesitantly before lowering his mouth to the wound.

"It's okay, Sam." Ruby smirked, stroking his hair as he drank greedily.

* * *

Dean held up Ruby's knife, looking at it as Alastair recognized it.

"There's that little pig-poker. I wondered where it went." He chuckled.

Dean dipped a ladle into a bowl of holy water and poured it over the blade.

"Do you really think this is gonna fix you? Give you closure? That is sad. That's really sad. Sad, sad." Alastair asked.

Dean approached Alastair, watching him for a moment before stabbing him in the stomach, causing a sizzling sound to fill the room.

"I carved you into a new animal, Dean. There is no going back." Alastair gasped out.

"Maybe you're right. But now it's my turn to carve." Dean shot back, twisting the blade slowly.

"No!" Alastair growled, wincing pain.

Dean didn't notice a faucet in the corner that was suddenly turned by an unseen hand. It began to drip, right onto the chalk of the devil's trap on the floor.

* * *

Uriel sighed, turning away from the window to look at the door. Alastair's groans could be heard from the room.

"This is awefully boring. Call me if something exciting happens." He said, disappearing in a flutter of wings.

Elena sighed with relief and sank back into her chair, glad that he was gone. Then the lights began to flicker and Castiel looked up at them. One of them exploded and they both felt another presence in the room.

"Anna." Castiel said, not looking at the redheaded angel who suddenly appeared.

Elena stared at her with wide eyes, not expecting to see her there.

"Hello, Castiel. Elena." Anna said, looking at her.

Elena simply picked up her hand and waved as Castiel turned to look at the female angel.

"Your human body…" he trailed off, looking confused.

"It was destroyed, I know. But I guess I'm sentimental. Called in some old favors and..." Anna said, gesturing down to her body.

Alastair's groans became slightly more audible and Elena winced.

"You shouldn't be here. We still have orders to kill you." Castiel said, causing Elena's eyes to widen.

"Somehow I don't think you'll try. Where's Uriel?" Anna asked.

"He got bored." Elena said simply, remaining sitting as the angels stared each other down.

"Right." Anna sighed, nodding.

* * *

Dean slowly pulled the knife out of Alastair as his head fell forward. He fisted his hand in his hand and titled it back up, ignoring the blood leaking out of his mouth. Alastair laughed, choking on the liquid in his throat.

"Now it's your professionalism that I respect." He said, smirking at hm.

* * *

Dean turned away, disgusted, as Alastair spat blood out onto the ground.

"Why are you letting Dean do this?" Anna asked.

"He's doing God's work." Castiel said, sounding unsure again as Elena rolled her eyes.

"Torturing? That's God's work? Stop him, Cas, please. Before you ruin the one real weapon you have." Anna said desperately.

"Who are we to question the will of God?" he asked.

"Unless this isn't his will." Anna suggested.

"Then where do the orders come from?" Castiel asked, confused.

"I don't know. One of our superiors, maybe, but not him." Anna shrugged.

* * *

Dean splashed holy water in Alastair's face, watching as it sizzled and Alastair gargled painfully.

"Who's murdering the angels?" he asked unemotionally.

Alastair simply choked.

* * *

"The father you love. You think he wants this? You think he'd ask this of you? You think this is righteous?" Anna asked, watching as Castiel refused to meet her eyes.

Elena glanced between the two angels, not moving or saying a word.

"What you're feeling? It's called doubt." The redhead said.

* * *

Alastair screamed and choked as Dean threw even more holy water in his face, his jaw clenched.

* * *

Anna reached out and touched Castiel's hand.

"These orders are wrong and you know it. But you can do the right thing. You're afraid, Cas. I was too. But together, we can still…" she said.

"Together?" Castiel said, yanking his hand away.

"Cas…" Elena said, standing up as she realized that Anna went too far.

"I am nothing like you. You fell. Go." Castiel said, his eyes wide as he backed away from her.

"Castiel." Anna sighed.

"Go." he commanded.

Anna looked at Elena apologetically before disappearing just as Alastair let out a particularly loud and painful scream.

* * *

Alastair hunched over the chains, spitting out blood and holy water.

"You're just not getting deep enough. Well, you lack the resources. Reality is just, I don't know, too concrete up here. Honestly, Dean..." Alastair said hoarsely as Dean poured salt into his hand.

"You have no idea how bad it really was, and what you really did for us." He said.

"Shut up." Dean whispered, turning back to him.

"The whole bloody thing, Dean. The reason Lilith wanted you there in the first place." Alastair chuckled.

"Well, then I'll just make you shut up." He said, grabbing Alastair's chin.

"Lilith really…" Alastair began, cut off by Dean forcing his mouth open.

He poured the salt into his mouth, watching as he tried and failed to scream as the salt burned his mouth and throat. When he let him go, Alastair spat out more blood and struggled to breathe

"Something caught in my throat. I think it's my throat." He whispered, his voice damaged.

"Well, strap in, 'cause I'm just starting to have fun." Dean said, narrowing his eyes at the demon before turning back to his cart.

"You know, it was supposed to be your father." Alastair said, leaning his head back.

Dean poured out more holy water, not responding to him.

"He was supposed to bring it on. But, in the end, it was you."

"Bring what on?" Dean asked, turning to look at him.

"Oh, every night, the same offer, remember? Same as your father." Alastair reminded him as he shook salt onto the blade of Ruby's knife.

"And finally you said, 'sign me up'. Oh, the first time you picked up my razor, the first time you sliced into that weeping bitch..." Alastair said, sounding sentimental as he spoke and Dean turned to face him.

"That was the first seal." He said reverently, smirking at Dean.

Dean's face didn't betray a single emotion as he walked towards him.

"You're lying." he accused the demon.

"And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell. As he breaks, so shall it break." Alastair recited

Dean turned away, shock forming on his face as he turned the words over in his mind.

"We had to break the first seal before any others. Only way to get the dominoes to fall, right? Topple the one at the front of the line." Alastair said, looking around. "When we win, when we bring on the apocalypse and burn this earth down, we'll owe it all to you, Dean Winchester."

Dean closed his eyes, trying not to react to this.

"Believe me, son, I wouldn't lie about this. It's kind of a religious sort of thing with me." Alastair said as he caught sight of the dripping water and now broken devil's trap.

"No. I don't think you are lying. But even if the demons do win..." Dean said, looking down at the knife.

"You won't be there to see it." he said, turning around as he lifted it. Alastair stood before him, smirking as he was out of his chains.

"You should talk to your plumber about the pipes." He said, punching Dean who fell to the floor as he grinned.

* * *

Elena watched as Castiel paced, the aftermath of Anna's visit making the room tense. Something was wrong, she could feel it. It took her a moment to realize that the grunts of pain coming inside the room no longer belonged to Alastair. Cas realized it at the same time and they exchanged a panicked look. Then Cas ran to the door and slammed it open.

"You got a lot to learn, boy. So I'll see you back in class bright and early Monday morning." Alastair said as he bent over a bleeding Dean.

He turned to see Castiel scooping up the knife and charging forward. He dropped Dean, turning his full attention on the angel, who stabbed him in the heart. A gold spark lit up but then there was nothing else.

"Well, almost. Looks like God is on my side today." Alastair said, grinning.

Castiel lifted a hand, watching as the knife twisted itself. Elena ran past them and knelt next to Dean, panicked by his labored breathing.

She looked up just in time to see Alastair pull the knife out and charge at Castiel. They began to fight as she pressed her hands to Dean's chest. She watched as Alastair shoved Cas against the wall. The warmth began to flow from her fingers as Alastair began to speak.

"Well, like roaches, you celestials. Now, I really wish I knew how to kill you. But all I can do is send you back to heaven." He said.

He began to chant in Latin and blue light appeared in Castiel's eyes and mouth. Elena felt the last of the warmth leave her fingers and she knew that Dean was healed. She was up on her feet instantly, charging forward and throwing Alastair off of Castiel, who collapsed to the ground also unconscious. He stumbled backwards and looked at her.

"Oh look, the guardian bitch has joined the fight. I've been wanting to get a taste of you for a while. I could sense you watching me torture your precious Winchester in hell all that time. How did you like the monster I created, huh?" he asked, gesturing to Dean who was still unconscious.

"Go to hell." She spat, launching out and punching him across the face.

Alastair barely reacted, stepping forward and wrapping his hands around her neck.

"There are some beings that you aren't stronger than, little girl." he whispered, pressing her against the wall as she fought against his hands.

Suddenly he was choking and he flew off of her, slamming against the wall. Elena collapsed to her knees and looked up as Sam walked into the room, his arm outstretched as he concentrated on Alastair.

"Stupid pet tricks." The demon spat, glaring at Sam.

"Who's murdering the angels? How are they doing it?" he asked as Elena watched the scene unfolding with hesitation.

"You think I'm gonna tell you?" Alastair laughed, attempting to struggle out of the psychic hold that Sam had on him.

"Yeah, I do." Sam nodded, twisting his hand as Alastair choked even more.

"How are the demons killing angels?" Sam demanded.

"Sam…" Elena said hoarsely, struggling to stand as she was still gulping in air and black spots were still in her vision.

"I don't know." Alastair choked out.

"Right." Sam scoffed.

"Sam… you… have to stop." She said pleadingly.

He didn't even look at her.

"It's not us. We're not doing it." Alastair said, struggling desperately.

"I don't believe you." Sam snapped.

"Lilith is not behind this. She wouldn't kill seven angels. Oh, she'd kill a hundred, a thousand." Alastair said, grinning.

Sam stopped, glaring at the demon.

"Oh, go ahead. Send me back, if you can." Alastair taunted, smirking at him.

"I'm stronger than that now. Now I can kill." Sam said, holding out his hand once more.

Elena watched with a fear filled expression as golden light flared up inside Alastair and he screamed, his body twitching violently. Then he fell to the ground with empty eyes and Sam sighed, dropping his hand. She looked at Sam with wide eyes before she crawled over to Dean and shook him. He groaned and his eyes opened slowly.

"Hey." She whispered, pulling him up to a sitting position.

"What happened?" he mumbled, looking down at the blood that was still covering him.

Elena looked up at Sam, who was watching them.

"Do you want to tell him, or should I?" she asked.

Sam averted his eyes.

"Demons had nothing to do with this. It was pointless to question Alastair. The car is outside when you're ready." He said, turning away from them and walking.

Elena looked over at Cas, who was standing there staring down at Alastair's vessel, who was dead.

"Are you okay?" she asked, looking at him.

"I need to go meet with Uriel. I will find you." he said, disappearing.

* * *

Uriel sat on a bench, eyes closed as Castiel appeared.

"Castiel, I received revelation from our superiors. Our brothers and sisters are dying and they...they want us to stop hunting the demon responsible." Uriel said, looking over at him.

Castiel looked confused as he sat next to the other angel.

"Something is wrong up there. I mean, can you feel it?" Uriel asked.

"The murders. Maybe they aren't demonic. Sam Winchester said the demons had nothing to do with it." Castiel said.

"If not the demons, what could it be?" Uriel asked, sounding as lost as Castiel was.

"The will of heaven. We are failing, Uriel. We are losing the war. Perhaps the garrison is being punished." He said.

"You think our father would…" Uriel began.

"I think maybe our father isn't giving the orders anymore. Maybe there is something wrong." Castiel said, looking up at the sky.

Uriel stood, looking certain of something. "Well, I won't wait to be gutted." He said before vanishing.

* * *

After getting Dean to a motel to sleep, Elena realized that the demon-killing knife was left behind at the factory.

"I have to go." she said as she stood and pulled on her shoes once again.

She was still in her funeral dress as she still hadn't had a chance to change out of it.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked.

Elena looked at him.

"To the factory. I left something." She said simply, grabbing the Impala keys and walking out to the car.

When she arrived at the factory, she thought it was deserted at first. But when she got to the room where she remained while Dean tortured Alastair, she saw Castiel standing there. She stopped short and hid as he didn't see her.

"Anna. Anna, please." Castiel said pleadingly, looking up at the ceiling.

The lights flickered and he looked around as the other angel appeared.

"Decided to kill me after all?" she asked.

"I'm alone." Castiel said, looking emotionally drained.

"What do you want from me, Castiel?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I'm considering disobedience." He said, causing Elena's eyes to widen.

Anna nodded. "Good." She said.

"No, it isn't. For the first time, I feel..." Castiel trailed off.

"It gets worse. Choosing your own course of action is confusing, terrifying." She said, looking sympathetic

She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. Castiel looked down at it with surprise and she dropped it instantly.

"That's right. You're too good for my help. I'm just trash. A walking blasphemy." She snapped, turning to walk away.

"Anna." He said, stopping her in her tracks.

"I don't know what to do. Please tell me what to do." He pleaded.

Anna turned back to look at him.

"Like the old days? No. I'm sorry. It's time to think for yourself." Anna said, shaking her head before disappearing.

Elena watched as Castiel looked around the room. Suddenly, something lit up in his eyes and he looked back at the torture room, walking into it. Elena slid off her heels and tiptoed after him, wondering what was going on. He walked around the room examining the devil's trap. When he bent down and touched a faucet, she made sure that she was in the shadows so he couldn't see her. It helped that she was still all in black.

"Uriel." He said softly.

A fluttering of wings sounded and the other angel appeared.

"You called?" Uriel asked, looking around.

"Strange. Strange how a leaky pipe can undo the work of angels when we ourselves are supposed to be the agents of fate." Castiel said, tracing the interrupted line on the circle.

"Alastair was much more powerful than we had imagined." Uriel shrugged.

"No. No demon can overpower that trap. I made it myself." Castiel said, standing up and looking at Uriel.

"We've been friends for a long time, Uriel. Fought by each other's sides, served together away from home, for what seems like forever. We're brothers, Uriel. Pay me that respect. Tell me the truth." He said, staring him down with his bright blue eyes.

"The truth is, the only thing that can kill an angel..." Uriel said, a blade sliding out of his sleeve as he sighed resignedly.

"... is another angel." He finished.

Elena's eyes widened and she watched as Castiel stared at him.

"You." he said.

"I'm afraid so." Uriel shrugged.

"And you broke the devil's trap, set Alastair on Dean."

"Alastair should never have been taken alive. Really inconvenient, Cas. Yes, I did turn the screw a little. Alastair should have killed Dean and escaped, and you should have gone on happily scapegoating the demons." Uriel said, pacing around the room.

"For the murders of our kin?" Castiel demanded, sounding angry.

"Not murders, Castiel. No. My work is conversion. How long have we waited here? How long have we played this game by rules that make no sense?" he said, gesturing around.

"It is our father's world, Uriel." Castiel admonished him.

"Our father? He stopped being that, if he ever was, the moment he created them. Humanity, his favorites. This whining, puking larva." Uriel snapped.

"Are you trying to convert me?" Castiel askd.

"I wanted you to join me. And I still do. With you, we can be powerful enough to…" Uriel trailed off, looking up at Castiel.

"To..." Castiel urged him to finish.

"To raise our brother." Uriel said.

"Lucifer." Cas sighed, shaking his hed.

"You do remember him? How strong he was? How beautiful? And he didn't bow to humanity. He was punished for defending us. Now, if you want to believe in something, Cas, believe in him." Uriel nodded, smiling with exhilaraiton.

"Lucifer is not God." Castiel said.

"God isn't God anymore. He doesn't care what we do. I am proof of that." he said, gesturing to his own body.

"But this? What were you gonna do, Uriel? Were you gonna kill the whole garrison?" Castiel demanded.

"I only killed the ones who said no. Others have joined me, Cas. Now, please, brother, don't fight me. Help me. Help me spread the word. Help me bring on the apocalypse. All you have to do is be unafraid." Uriel said, spreading his arms as if to embrace Castiel.

"For the first time in a long time, I am." Castiel admitted, looking up at his brother.

Uriel smiled just before Castiel punched him through a wall several feet away. Elena stumbled backwards as they began to fight. Uriel quickly gained the upper hand as he clobbered Castiel with a metal bar, causing the angel to fall to his knees.

"You can't win, Uriel. I still serve God." Castiel said, staring up at him with blood covering his face.

"You haven't even met the man. There is no will. No wrath. No God." Uriel snapped, punching him with each word he said.

Elena finally darted into the room, throwing herself at Uriel stupidly and knocking him away from Castiel. They slammed into the wall and Uriel immediately had his hand around her throat.

"Are you really so stupid?" he growled, glaring at her.

"I guess I am." She said, rearing her head back and slamming it into his.

Then she kicked him in the gut and sent him flying backwards. He disappeared before he hit the wall and she felt his arms wrap around her from behind, whirling her around. His fist came down on her face before she could do anything. Black dots appeared in her vision as her head snapped backwards. She cried out when another fist connected with her ribs, breaking a few with the blow.

"You are not stronger than me." Uriel said triumphantly, landing another blood on her face and causing her skin to break on her cheek and blood flowed out of the cut.

He threw Elena to the ground and turned back to Castiel, who was struggling to a standing position. Uriel threw the other angel into the wall, pressing him there as his face was inches away.

"I only wanted you to join me." he said, glaring at him.

Elena felt her entire body screaming with pain as she struggled to her hands and knees. She caught sight of the silver sword on the ground and reached out, picking it up. When she turned to Uriel, he was choking Cas. She slowly pulled herself up to her feet and stumbled towards him. Castiel caught sight of her and nodded with difficulty.

"In the heart." He gasped out.

Uriel turned just in time for Elena to shove the blade into his chest.

"As it turns out, it doesn't matter if I'm stronger than you." she choked out as he fell to the ground dead with a look of shock on his face.

A bright light flashed through the room and she looked down to see his wings imprinted on the concrete. Elena swayed on the spot for a moment as Castiel pushed off of the wall and stumbled towards her.

"Elena?" he questioned.

"I don't feel... good…" she whispered before her vision went dark.

The last thing she felt was two arms catching her and holding her up.

* * *

Dean was sitting up in bed rubbing his head as he glared at Sam.

"I can't believe you let her go alone." He said accusingly.

"I didn't have much of a choice, Dean." Sam defended himself.

"Yeah? Or you just didn't give a shit?" Dean snapped.

They were cut off from their arguing when the flutter of wings filled the room. They looked up to see Castiel holding an unconscious Elena in his arms bridal style. Both of their faces were covered in blood.

"What the hell?" they demanded as Castiel stumbled over to the bed to lay her on it.

"Are you all right?" Castiel asked, looking up at him as he stared down at Elena.

"No thanks to you." Dean said, looking up at the angel, who was breathing with difficulty.

"You need to be more careful." He warned.

"You need to learn how to manage a damn devil's trap. What happened to her?" Dean demanded.

"That's not what I mean. Uriel is dead." Castiel said.

"Was it the demons?" Sam asked.

"It was disobedience. He was working against us. He attacked me. Elena was there and she fought against him when he tried to kill me. That is how we ended up in this condition." Castiel sighed, reaching down and pressing his fingers to her head.

They watched as her wounds quickly healed. Her eyes popped open and she sat up, gasping for air.

"Hey, it's okay." Dean said as Castiel turned to walk away from the bed.

Elena looked up at the angel.

"I'm sorry I killed your brother." she said.

Castiel looked back at her with a sad expression.

"It was necessary. Uriel would have continued to kill my brethren and that could not be allowed." He said.

"You killed Uriel? Badass." Dean commented, grinning at her.

"The Impala is still at the factory." Elena realized.

They all looked at Sam and he groaned.

"I'll go get it, I guess." He sighed.

"I can take you there." Castiel offered.

"I still have some things to talk to you about." Dean argued.

"I will come back." the angel offered.

They nodded slowly, watching as Castiel laid a hand on Sam's shoulder.

"The keys are on the ground somewhere. And my shoes too!" she called before they disapperaed.

Dean looked up at Castiel once he reappeared in the exact same spot.

"Is it true? Did I break the first seal? Did I start all this?" he asked, sounding devastated.

"What?" Elena whispered, her eye widening..

"Yes." Castiel sighed regretfully.

Elena looked between them with a confused expression.

"When we discovered Lilith's plan for you, we laid siege to hell and we fought our way to get to you before you…" Castiel trailed off.

"Jump-started the apocalypse." Dean said roughly.

"And we were too late." The angel said, looking up a the ceiling with regret.

"Why didn't you just leave me there, then?" Dean demanded.

"It's not blame that falls on you, Dean, it's fate. The righteous man who begins it is the only one who can finish it. You have to stop it." Cas said.

"Lucifer? The apocalypse? What does that mean?" Dean asked as the angel turned away.

"Hey! Don't you go disappearing on me, you son of a bitch. What does that mean?" he demanded.

"I don't know." Castiel admitted.

"Bullshit." Dean snapped.

"I don't. Dean, they don't tell me much. I know our fate rests with you." Castiel said, gesturing to him.

Dean stared at him before shaking his head.

"Well, then you guys are screwed. I can't do it, Cas. It's too big. Alastair was right. I'm not all here. I'm not… I'm not strong enough. Well, I guess I'm not the man either of our dads wanted me to be. Find someone else. It's not me." he said, a single tear sliding down his cheek.

Elena drew him into her arms immediately, looking up to meet Cas' eyes. It was hard to see past Dean's jokes and easy smile that inside, he was broken. He didn't think much of himself even though he rarely ever showed it. Suddenly there was a flutter of feathers and she looked up with wide eyes to see a new angel standing there looking down at them. Castiel looked at him with wide eyes.

"I'll take it from here, Castiel." He said.

Cas nodded and disappeared before Elena could argue.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean demanded, looking up at him.

"You won't remember this." the man said, leaning in and pressing a hand to each of their foreheads.

* * *

**Review please! Next chapter is the 'It's a Terrible Life' episode with Elena included!**

**Remember to ask questions! See the top if you have no idea what I'm talking about.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to neontreeslover, Nyssandria, TheElegantFaerie, DrawingMyHeartOut, slayerdiaries, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, Dreamingwhileawake, chiwi, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Dark Alana, LineChokor, and the two guests for reviewing!**

**Dreamingwhileawake, I'm so glad you didn't miss your flight! I would have felt bad!**

**A few things:**

**1. All of the answers to questions are at the end of this chapter instead of the beginning.**

**2. This chapter is in Dean's point of view! Isn't that exciting? It was for me when I started writing it! Because of that, this chapter will not be Elena-centric but it will still have her in it. But a little spoiler, their roles will be reversed a little from where they were at the beginning of the story.**

**3. Elena's outfits for this chapter are up on my profile.**

* * *

As the alarm clock switched from 5:59 to 6:00, the annoying sound filled the air and the inhabitant of the bed sat up, groaning as he stopped the alarm. He stumbled out of his bed, sliding into the bathroom. After taking a shower, he stepped out and wrapped a towel around his hips, leaning into the counter to shave quickly. Then he walked out of the bathroom and quickly go dress in an expensive business suit with a blue striped shirt and a red tie and red suspenders. His hair was slicked to the side. He walked out to the kitchen and made himself an expresso as he watched the news on the television. He poured it into a thermos and grabbed his workbag, walking out of his apartment.

When he got outside, he walked to his car, a silver Toyota Prius. When he turned it on, rock music blared out of the radio. He stared at it for a moment, grimacing slightly before he changed the station to the NPR Morning Edition station. When he got to his workplace, he walked inside and immediately walked into the elevator. Once he arrived at his floor, he climbed out and proceeded to his office. He passed his assistant's desk to see her bent over a pad of paper writing furiously as she spoke on the phone. He looked up at the door and smiled slightly when he saw his name on the door, **Dean Smith – Director, Sales & Marketing**.

Right after he settled himself in his office, he got a phone call. He immediately put his headset on and answered it. Laughing at the joke the man on the other line told him, he stood and walked to the window.

"Net profitability aside, it's the client-retention rate that concerns me vis-à-vis maximizing return on sales. Buzz me back once you've seen the spreadsheets." He said, turning as he heard his door opening.

"Mr. Adler." He acknowledged as he hung up, putting the headset on his desk and walking around it to stand in front of his boss.

"Dean." Adler said, clapping him on the shoulder proudly.

"Good stuff." He nodded.

"Good stuff?" Dean asked.

"Big things. Good stuff." Adler repeated.

"Good stuff." He agreed.

A knock sounded on the door and his assistant walked in. She was wearing an appropriate outfit for the workplace and Dean couldn't help but admire her beauty. She'd only been assigned to him when he arrived at the company and he'd hardly talked to the poor girl.

"Good morning." He said, looking at her.

"Morning." She nodded, smiling at both of them. "Can I get either you a cup of coffee?"

"That would be great." Dean nodded.

"None for me, thanks. I have some waiting in my office." Adler said, smiling at the assistant.

"All right." she nodded, turning to walk out.

"Hey, thanks Ellie." Dean said.

Her head snapped back to him and her eyes were narrowed slightly. Strangely enough, he found her even more beautiful when she was annoyed.

"My name is Elena." she said through gritted teeth.

"Oh…" he said, his eyes wide.

She whirled around and walked out of the office.

"Don't beat yourself up, kid. I'm sure she still thinks you're handsome." Adler chuckled, clapping his back once more before turning to walk out as well, leaving Dean alone.

* * *

A few hours later, he was sitting as his desk playing with a rubberband ball as he spoke into the headset.

"Oh I hear you. No, I haven't been to the gym in ages. Carrying a little bloat around myself. It's a sedentary lifestyle, my man, no two ways. All right, tell me one more time. You said lemon and… what was it? Cayenne and maple syrup, are you serious? How much did you lose?" he asked, writing down the recipe for the new cleanse.

His door opened and his assistant, whom he now knew to be Elena, walked in, placing a stack of papers on his desk.

"You have to sign these." She murmured softly before she turned to walk out.

He cleared his throat and she turned back to him to see him waving his empty coffee mug as he continued to talk on the phone. One eyebrow rose slowly as she put her hands on her hips.

"Do you want to ask me for something or keep waving that cup around like an idiot?" she asked, staring at him.

His eyes got wider and he choked a little at her words.

"Uh… coffee… please?" he managed to say.

She walked forward and took it from his hand.

"That's better." She nodded, patting his head affectionately before turning to walk out.

Dean stared after her with surprise. The girl was a little strange but he found himself weirdly attracted to her.

* * *

Dean was staring at his phone as he walked into the elevator. He was aware of Elena walking in after him, a blue leather jacket thrown over her black dress. Her fruity perfume filled the elevator delightfully and he found himself inhaling deeply.

"Do I know you?" a tall man in a tech office yellow polo asked.

Dean looked around, catching sight of Elena glancing between him and the other man in the elevator.

"I don't think so." he said, looking at the man.

"I'm sorry, man, you just look really familiar." He said.

"Save it for the health club, pal." Dean said, stepping out of the elevator as it dinged.

The man stared after him, surprised.

"You're not wrong." Elena said, stepping forward.

The man looked over at her, his long hair falling in his eyes.

"What?" he questioned.

"He's can be a dick." Elena confirmed to a clueless Sam, smirking at him as she walked out of the elevator.

* * *

Dean groaned loudly as he walked up to the office. He stepped into the elevator rubbing his forehead.

"Need some Tylenol, boss?" an amused voice came from beside him.

He looked to see Elena standing there with the strange tall man standing on the other side of her standing there once again.

"Maybe later." He mumbled, shaking his head.

The doors opened and everyone who was in there with them spilled out, leaving the three standing there, Elena in the middle.

"Can I ask you a question?" the man asked, turning to Dean.

"Look, man, I told you, I'm not into the, uh…" Dean said, shaking his head.

"Oh dude, come on, I'm not either. I just wanna ask you one question." he said pleadingly.

Dean looked at Elena for help but she shrugged, stepping backwards.

"I'm just an assistant." She whispered, smirking.

"Sure." Dean sighed, shaking his head.

"What do you think about ghosts?" the man asked.

"Ghosts?" Dean replied, staring at him as if he was crazy.

"Do you believe in them?" the man questioned.

Dean laughed "Uh, tell you the truth, I've never given it much thought." He said.

"Vampires?"

"What? Why?" he asked, looking at him with wide eyes.

He saw Elena fighting a smile as she bit her lip out of the corner of his eye. She was far too amused by this and he would have to ask her about that later.

"Because I've been having some weird dreams lately. You know what I mean?" the strange, tall man said.

"No. Not really." Dean said, shaking her head.

"So you've never had any... weird dreams?"

"All right, look, man, I don't know you, okay? But I'm gonna do a public service and, uh, let you know that… that you overshare." He said, surprised when Elena let out a soft laugh behind them.

The elevator dinged and he climbed out, Elena following him with a knowing look at Sam.

* * *

"Oh my God, Elena!" Dean heard someone shriek from outside.

He stood, the panic in the woman's cry catching his attention. A few moments later, Elena appeared in his doorway.

"Someone died on the tech floor. He committed suicide." Elena said, her eyes wide.

Dean stared at her for a moment before walking past her. She followed him onto the elevator and rode down with him in silence. When they arrived on the floor, they walked into the room with a maze of cubicles to see people in coroner outfits roll a body bag past. They watched solemnly and Dean caught sight of the tall man from the elevator.

"Something about this seem not right to you?" Dean asked another man in a suit.

"Uh, yeah, try the whole thing. I'm telling you, man, I'll never eat popcorn again." The suit said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, right." Dean nodded, looking over at Elena, who looked slightly distressed.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She nodded, her hands knotting together before she walked around the crowd to stand next to tall man. Dean felt a stab of jealousy as she talked to the man, standing rather closely to him. She quickly nodded and turned back, walking to Dean.

"His name was Paul Dunbar. Sam was friends with him." she said softly.

"Who's Sam?" Dean asked.

She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, something he quickly learned she was good at.

"Your ghost friend." She said, cracking a smirk.

"Hmm." He said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"He was two weeks from retirement." She informed him with a sigh.

"Two weeks?" Dean asked, confused back that.

* * *

Dean was looking through some paperwork when he discovered a mistake. After having his assistant call the guy up who made it, a knock sounded on his door. Elena peeked her head in.

"Ian Keller for you, sir." She said, smiling at him.

He looked up from his computer and stared at her for a moment. Whenever she spoke to him, it felt as though she was in on a joke that he wasn't. It bothered him a little but it just added to the mystery of the girl and he wanted to know that mystery.

"Let him in." he nodded after a moment.

Elena nodded and stepped aside for the nervous tech guy to walk in.

"Hi. Ian, is it? Yeah, come on in. Yesterday you filled out a 445-T and no problem, just a few errors when we did your switch over to Vista. So I'm sure you're used to filling out the dash-R's, am I right?" Dean asked.

"Oh, no." the man said, his eyes widening fearfully.

"No no no. It's fine. It's fine. I just need you to redo one today so I can get the show on the road with the invoicing." He said, pushing a paper over the desk and smiling.

Ian looked at it, terrified, as if it was his death sentence.

"Oh my god."

"No, it's fine. Just refile it and we're square." Dean nodded, his smile faltering.

"I can't believe I did this." he said, shaking his head.

His smile completely disappeared and he leaned forward.

"I can't believe I… I can't believe I did this." Ian said, panicking.

"Hey, guy, come on." Dean said, holding his hands out as if to help.

"No, no. It affected profits. It… I screwed up. I… I can't… I can't… I am so sorry. I… how could I do that? I failed Sandover. I failed the company." Ian said, backing towards the door as Dean stood.

"All right, why don't you sit down, Ian?" he suggested, pointing at the chair.

"No." Ian said, turning to run out of the room.

"Ian? Ian. Hey." Dean called, following him.

"Boss?" Elena said as he walked past her desk.

He entered the bathroom behind the man and found him looking in the mirror.

"Ian, hey. Just chill out, man. Okay?" Dean said, shivering as he suddenly got cold.

Suddenly all of the faucets and soap dispensers came on. Dean looked around with wide eyes.

"Ian, hey, maybe we should get out of here, huh? Come on. Ian. Look at me." he urged the hysterical man.

Ian turned towards Dean, a blank look in his eyes, as he slowly pulled a pencil out of his pocket. He stared at him for a moment before lifting his hand and stabbing the pencil into his throat. The blood spattered on the mirror and wall, shocking Dean before he ran to catch him as he collapsed. He looked around and up into the mirror to see and old man standing behind them looking down at Ian. Dean whirled around to see that the room was empty as Ian drew still and stopped gurgling.

"Somebody help me!" Dean shouted.

The door flew open and Elena ran in.

"Oh my…" Her hands clapped over her mouth as her eyes widened.

"You need to call 911." He said desperately, still holding the man.

"I already did." she said, walking towards him slowly.

She knelt beside him and reached out, gingerly checking the man for a pulse.

"He's dead, boss." She whispered.

"But…" he began.

"You can put him down." She said, looking up at him.

"He just stabbed the pencil into his neck, I couldn't stop him." Dean said, looking down at Ian's blank eyes.

"I know." Elena said, reaching down to touch his hands, prying them away from his body.

"I… I…" he said, shaking his head as his hands automatically turned to grip her hands.

She looked up at him with surprise.

"Shh… it's okay, Dean." Elena murmured, reaching up to stroke his cheek softly.

Then she looked panicked as if she did something wrong, her eyes widening slightly and her mouth forming a slight 'o' before she looked away. But her gesture, whatever caused it and no matter what she thought was wrong with it, felt natural and comforting to him.

"Let's get away from… from the body." She said, standing up and pulling him to his feet.

* * *

"No, I, I followed him into the bathroom." Dean said to the cop once again as the coroner rolled a black body bag past them.

His eyes darted around to see Elena also talking to a police officer.

"He was, uh… he was standing there in front of the mirror, and then…" Dean stopped as soon as he saw the guy from the tech office, Sam, standing there.

"Continue. Sir." Officer urged him.

"And he stabbed himself in the neck. I'm sorry, that's, um..." Dean said, shaking his head.

Elena moved away from the officer and looked at him sympathetically before walking off.

* * *

As he walked back to his office, he saw Elena sitting at her desk looking a little shaken.

"Hey can you, uh, can you get your friend from tech for me? Sam?" he asked.

Elena looked up at him and nodded, a knowing look on her face as she stood to walk off. He continued to walk into the office and pulled off the bloodstained jacket, shirt, and tie. When he began to button up a fresh shirt, a knock sounded on the door.

"Come on in. Both of you." he said, looking up to see Elena and Sam standing there.

"Shut the door." He said as they walked in.

Sam shut the door and turned to see Dean staring at him.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked.

"I'm not sure I know." Sam sighed, taking Dean by surprise.

"What the hell does that mean?" he demanded.

"Sam Wesson. I started here three weeks ago." he said, looking around the office.

"All right. You cornered me in the elevator talking about ghosts. And now..." Dean trailed off.

"Now what?" Sam asked, his statement catching his interest.

"Now nothing. I, uh...so you started working here three weeks ago, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah, me too." Dean said, unscrewing the top of a bottle and picking it up to his lips.

"It's the Master Cleanse. You tried it? Phenomenal. Detoxes you like nobody's business." He said after taking a drink.

He didn't miss the roll of Elena's eyes at his words.

"When you were in that bathroom with Ian, did you see something?" Sam asked, leaning forward slightly.

"I don't know. I don't know what I saw." Dean said, shaking his head as he turned towards the window.

"Wait. Are you saying that… did you see a ghost?"

"I was freaking out. The guy penciled his damn neck." he said, gesturing wildly and sounding not at all like himself.

"You did, didn't you? Okay, listen. What if these suicides aren't suicides? I mean, what if they're something not natural?" Sam began, looking over at Elena.

"So, what, ghosts are real? And they're responsible for all the dead bodies around here? Is that what you're telling me?" Dean scoffed.

They stared at each other for a moment before sitting down in unison.

"I know it sounds crazy. But yes. That's what I'm telling you." Sam nodded.

"Uh-huh. Based on what?" Dean asked skeptically.

Sam looked as though he was searching for an answer.

"Instinct." Sam

Dean sighed and looked down at the paperwork on his desk, wishing more than anything that it would disappear.

"I've got the same instinct." He admitted.

"Boss, can I ask why I'm in here?" Elena asked, looking at between the two with a bored expression.

Dean looked up at her with surprise.

"Because I wanted to see your reaction. You didn't panic at all when you found me with that guy in the bathroom. You haven't flinched or even made a comment throughout this entire conversation even though we're talking about real live ghosts. You know something." Dean ranted, staring at her to see how she would react.

She barely blinked an eye.

"Maybe I just believe in ghosts." She shrugged.

They stared at her with wide eyes.

"I knew these two guys who did a lot of things with this kind of supernatural stuff. They knew all about it and talked about it constantly. Trust me, ghost causing suicides is the least whackadoodle thing I've heard." She said, smiling fondly.

"I think I found a connection between the two guys." Sam said after a few moments silence.

He handed Dean the papers in his hands and Dean looked down at them.

"You broke into their email accounts?" he asked, looking up at the man with surprise.

"I used some skills that I happen to have to satisfy my curiosity." Sam shrugged.

"Nice." Dean nodded, smiling slightly.

"Yeah. Okay. So it turns out Ian and Paul both got this same email telling them to report to HR, room fourteen forty-four." Sam said, pointing at the paper.

"HR's on seven." Dean said with confusion.

"Exactly." Sam nodded.

"Should we go check this out?" he asked, looking up at the other man.

"Like right now?" Sam asked, looking around.

"No. No, it's getting late. You're right." Dean nodded.

Sam looked down at his lap before looking up again.

"I am dying to check this out right now." he admitted.

"Right?" Dean said, nodding once before getting up.

Elena walked out of the office before them and picked something up off of his desk, handing it to Dean. He looked down at the wrench with confusion.

"Just in case." She shrugged.

"If a ghost attacks me, a wrench isn't gonna do a thing." Dean pointed out.

Elena shrugged and turned back to her desk.

"I'm clocking out, boss." She said.

"Oh no, if you've heard some things about this, we need your help." Elena looked back at him with wide eyes, almost looking guilty.

"I, uh…" she began, sounding conflicted.

"Fine." She sighed, putting her purse down and sliding her heels off.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at her bare feet.

"If anything shows up, do you really think I want to deal with it with heels on?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I suppose not." He shrugged, noticing how short she was without the tall heels on.

* * *

They walked down the hallway on the fourteenth floor slowly, their footsteps not making any noise. Dean was still holding the wrench and Sam was leading them. Suddenly, they heard yelling. They all ran forward and stopped at room 1444. Sam tried the door, finding that it was locked.

"What do we do now?" Dean demanded, turning to look at them.

Sam reared back and kicked the door open.

"Whoa." He said, staring at him with wide eyes as Elena smiled slightly.

They ran inside after Sam to find that a man was trapped under a bookcase. Dean and Sam hurried over to lift it off of him. Elena shrieked with surprise as an old man appeared behind Dean and effortlessly flung him into the wall. Then he shoved Sam to the side and leaned over the fallen man, his hands sparking with light. Dean jumped up and grabbed the wrench, running forward and swinging at the old man with all of his might, causing the ghost to disappear. Elena sighed and watched as Sam and Dean lifted the shelves off of the man. He scooted out from underneath and sat there with wide eyes as if trying to figure out what happened.

"How'd you know that the wrench would work?" Sam turned to Elena with questioning eyes.

"I didn't, I just figured it was good to have a weapon. Which it was, by the way. So you two can thank me for your lives anytime." She said, turning to walk out.

"How about this bump on my head? Can you fix that?" Dean asked, rubbing at it as they followed her.

When they got back upstairs, Elena reached out to grab her purse and jacket.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked as she turned to walk away.

"Home." she said, waving over her head.

"Wait! You have to help us." He said.

She turned to raise her eyebrow at him.

"Do what?" Elena asked.

"Well we have to hunt down this ghost… thing. We need… help." Dean shrugged.

Elena sighed.

"Follow me to my apartment." She said.

* * *

Dean stared around uncomfortably as they sat in Elena's comfortable living room. She'd gone to her room to change before they started to figure out what they were going to do. When she walked back in, she was wearing a pair of yoga leggings, a baggy grey sweater, and her hair was thrown up into a messy topknot with a few curly tendrils hanging in her face. Both of the men stared at her with surprise

"Either of you want anything to drink?" she asked.

"Yeah. I could use a beer, if you have it." Sam nodded.

"I'm on the Cleanse. I got rid of all the carbs." Dean said.

"I'll bring you water." Elena said dryly, turning to walk into the kitchen.

"Nice job kicking that door. That was very Jet Li. What are you, like a black belt or something?" Dean asked, chuckling as Elena returned with beers for her and Sam and a bottle of water for Dean.

"No. I have no clue how I did that. It's like...we've done this before." Sam said, laughing too.

"What do you mean, before? Like Shirley MacLaine before?" he scoffed.

"No. I—I just can't shake this feeling like I—like I don't belong here. You know? Like I should do something more than sit in a cubicle." Sam shrugged.

"I think most people who work in a cubicle feel that same way."

"No. Well, look, it's more than that. Like, I don't like my job. I don't like this town. I don't like my clothes. I don't like my own last name. I don't know how else to explain it, except that...it feels like I should be doing something else. There's just something in my blood. Like I was destined for something different. What about you? You ever feel that way?" Sam asked.

"I don't believe in destiny. I do believe in dealing with what's right in front of us, though." Dean nodded.

"Don't worry, Sam. I feel that way." Elena said with a teasing grin.

Sam smiled back at her and Dean felt a little jealous again.

"All right, so, what do we do now?" Sam asked.

"We do what I do best, Sammy. Research." Dean said, finally smiling at something.

Elena's eyes lit up and her face broke out into a wide grin at something he said. He would say it again if it made her face light up like that.

"Okay. Did you just call me Sammy?" Sam asked, doing a doubletake as he stood up.

"Did I?" Dean asked, confused.

"I think you did. Yeah. Don't." Sam said with a grimace, making the grin on Elena's face fade a little bit.

"Sorry." Dean said, not sure which person he was apologizing to.

* * *

Dean and Sam sat at the table on their laptops while Elena sat on the counter in the kitchen eating a brownie.

"Sure you don't want any?" she asked, biting into one and smiling happily at the taste.

"Nah, carbs. Oh, jackpot." Dean said, looking satisfied as he found something.

"What you got?" Sam asked, leaning over his computer.

"I just found the best site ever. Real, actual ghost hunters." He said, turning his computer to face them. "These guys are genius. Check it out."

"Instructional videos." Sam said, looking interested.

Elena hopped off of the counter and leaned over the table between the two brothers to watch the video. It showed two men in labcoats and, when Dean pressed play, they began speaking alternately and very dramatically. A smirk formed on Elena's face as she watched.

"We know why you're watching."

"You've got a problem."

"A ghost problem."

"A ghost-related problem. A ghost… it's like a ghost-adjacent pr… it's like a problem that's… and the ghost is…"

"Whatever. You've come to the right place. The only decent place, really, because the Ghostfacers know how to solve it."

"Period."

"Watch and learn."

"See, the first step in any supernatural fight."

"Figure out what you're up against." The two men said together.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look before Sam grabbed his laptop and dragged it over to where they could see it.

"That's him. That's the ghost." Dean said, pointing at the picture of the old man on the screen.

"P. T. Sandover. Died 1916. Devoted his life to his work. No wife, no kids." Sam said.

"Used to say he was the company, and his very blood pumped through the building." Elena read an excerpt, making a face.

"Wow, okay. So slight workaholic. Maybe he's still here, you know, watching over the company, even killing for it." Dean shrugged.

"Plus, turns out this isn't the first time people started killing themselves in the building. 1929." Sam commented.

"Yeah, but lots of guys jumped off lots of high rises that year." Dean reminded him.

"How many companies had seventeen suicides?" Elena asked, pointing at the statistic.

"Phew. Okay, so P. T. Sandover, protector of the company. His ghost wakes up and becomes active during times of grave economic distress." Dean said.

"Well, I mean, the worst time we've seen since the Great Depression…" Sam trailed of.

"… is now. Yeah, now sucks. My portfolio's in the sewer. I don't even wanna talk about it." Dean said miserably, shaking his head.

Sam made a face, rolling his eyes at the other man's dramatics.

"So Sandover's helping the bottom line…" he said.

"By zapping some model employees." Dean nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, Ian and Paul. It was like he turned them into different people."

"Perfect worker bees, exactly. So devoted to the company that they would commit hara-kiri if they failed it." Dean said.

"One more interesting fact. The building wasn't always that high. Used to be fourteen floors. And the room where the ghost attacked, fourteen forty-four? Once upon a time, that was the old man's office." Sam informed them.

Neither of them saw Elena watching them with a smile as if she was in on a secret that they weren't. All three of them returned to watching the Ghostfacers video at the same time.

"Once you've got that thing in your sights…"

"You kill it."

"Using special ghost-hunting weapons."

"First, salt. It's like acid to ghosts."

"Burny acid."

"Not LSD."

"No. It's a bad trip for ghosts. Next up, iron."

"That's why the wrench worked." Sam realized, looking at Dean and Elena.

"Pure power in your hand."

Dissipates ghosts instantly."

"Next little trick. We learned this from those useless douchebags…"

"That we hate."

"The Winchesters." Dean and Sam looked at Elena strangely when a peal of laughter escaped from her lips.

"I'm sorry it's just… this video… ridiculous." She said, shaking her head as she walked to the kitchen cabinet and began to pull out the salt she had.

Dean and Sam shrugged before turning back to the video.

"Gun."

"Shotgun shell. Pack it up with fresh rock salt."

"Very effective."

"Winchesters still suck ass, though."

"Affirmative. Suckage major."

* * *

Sam watched as Dean packed two iron pokers from her fireplace into a duffle bag with the salt.

"Where do we even get a gun?" Dean asked.

"Gun store?" Sam questioned, shrugging.

"Isn't there like some kind of waiting period or something?"

"I think so."

"Well, how in the hell…" Dean began.

"I don't know. Seems pretty impossible, honestly." Sam nodded.

"Right." Dean said.

Elena sighed, walking back into the room as she pulled on a brown leather jacket on over the outfit that she'd changed into once again as they prepared to go back to the office.

"We ready?" Dean asked.

They all nodded, turning to walk out of the apartment.

* * *

Elena entered the elevator after Sam and Dean, all three silent as their hearts pounded in their chests. She'd convinced Dean to leave behind the jacket, tie, and suspenders but he was still wearing his blue button down shirt tucked in.

"Set your cell phone to walkie-talkie in case we get separated." Dean said, holding up his phone.

"How the hell are we gonna find some ancient speck of DNA in a skyscraper?" Sam questioned, messing with his phone.

"Well, that creepy storeroom used to be Sandover's office, right?" Dean asked, pressing the button for the fourteenth floor.

When they got back to the storeroom, they began to look through every single box in the room. Dean and Elena were behind some shelves rifling through stuff as Sam dug through a desk near the door.

"What the hell are you doing here?" a voice demanded.

Dean grabbed Elena's arm and they ducked out of sight.

"Nothing. I just…" Sam said, looking around for an escape.

"Come with me." the guard said, grabbing Sam's arm and shutting the door behind him.

"Man, listen. Look. It's okay. I—I work here." They heard Sam's voice over the walkie-talkie as they continued to search through stuff.

"Whatever. Tell it to the cops." The guard said.

They listened as the elevator Sam was in came to a stop and the guard pried the doors open. A few moments later, they heard a slam and a sickening crunch.

"Hey. You okay?" Dean demanded, holding the phone up to his mouth.

There was a few moments silence and he exchanged a fearful glance with Elena.

"The guard got decapitated by the elevator. Call you back." Sam said in a highpitched voice, causing them to sigh with relief.

"Hey, check this out." Elena said, pointing to a newspaper clipping she found of a new CEO to the company being introduced.

It was in front of a glass case with several different awards in it.

"The CEO was given a key to the building in front of the award display case on the 22nd floor of the building, where a dedication to P.T. Sandover, the founder of the company, holds a possession of the late businessman." She read off.

"Sounds like it could be something." Dean said as they turned to walk out of the storeroom.

"Dean, you there?" Sam's voice sounded as they reached the elevator.

"Yeah, listen, I think I got it. Meet me on twenty-two." Dean said into the phone.

"Okay, yeah. Just, uh, take the stairs." Sam said hesitantly.

* * *

Dean watched as Elena leaned against the wall casually as he paced in front of the display case.

"How do you do that?" he asked.

"What?" she replied innocently, confused at what he was referring to.

"You're so calm and collected. It's like this ghost business doesn't even bother you." Dean said.

"Like I said…" she began.

"I know, you had friends. Who were your friends?" he demanded, curious to know his assistant's story and how she ended up being totally different than he expected.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"The Winchesters." She said.

"Those guys the Ghostfacers were talking about?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." She confirmed, looking down and kicking at the ground.

"Well… if you're so good at this, which you are, why aren't you with your friends doing stuff with them?" he asked.

She looked up at him with a hesitant look.

"Because I don't know where they are. They're… a long way away and… well it's complicated." She admitted.

"You care about them?" Dean asked.

She smiled softly and nodded.

"Yeah, they're… they're really important to me." she said.

Dean felt a stab of jealousy at the two guys she was talking about with such a tender look in her eyes. She was probably with one of the guys and, for some reason, Dean hated the stupid bastard who could call Elena his. Because that was supposed to be Dean's job. He shook his head, unsure of why he was thinking those thoughts.

"These guys, these Winchesters, they as douche-y as the Ghostfacers made them out to be?" he asked.

Elena let out a pealing laugh that he couldn't help but smile at.

"No, no they're amazing. I'll have to ask them about the Ghostfacers when I see them again. Because I'm sure there's a great story there." she said, smiling widely.

Dean nodded, smiling back at her.

"You know, one of them had this sort of philosophy. He would sometimes use this last night on earth line on girls before a hunt. Try to get them to hook up with them." Elena said, smirking slightly.

"And that worked?" Dean asked with a grimace.

"It was known to be effective." She shrugged.

"This guy sounds like a real winner." He said, causing Elena to laugh again.

He liked her laugh, it made him happier and want to laugh as well. It also made him want to kiss her but that was a whole different feeling that he would have to ignore because he was becoming more and more certain that Elena was taken by one of these Winchester guys, lucky asshole. He watched as Elena pushed off of the wall and walked towards him.

"This ghost is probably going to show up and stop us from burning the gloves." She said.

"Yeah, probably." Dean said, dreading the moment.

"He could do anything. Hurt you… or me." she shrugged, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"I suppose he could. Dude's got a wallop of a punch." Dean said, nodding.

"Well, it would be a shame if one of us were to… not make it." she sighed, looking down at her shoes.

A grin slowly spreaded across his face as he realized something.

"Are you using the last night on earth line on me?" he asked, hoping to God that she was.

She peeked through her eyelashes up at him.

"Maybe." She breathed.

Dean smirked and leaned down, his lips centimeters from hers.

"Hey." A voice said from behind them.

Dean turned around and Elena peeked out from behind him to see Sam staring there. Dean glared at him for a moment, taking the other male by surprise, before he noticed the blood spattered on his clothing and in his hair.

"Whoa. That's a lot of blood." Dean said with wide eyes.

"Yeah, I know." Sam said bitterly.

"Right. So, uh, in there." Dean said, pointing at the pair of gloves displayed as he looked back at Elena.

"Later." She mouthed, winking at him.

"P. T. Sandover's gloves." Elena said.

"Yeah, how much you wanna bet there's a little smidge of DNA in there? You know, like a fingernail clipping or a hair or two? Something." Dean suggested.

"So you ready?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"I have no idea." Dean admitted.

"Me neither." Sam sighed.

The two males grabbed an iron poker and Elena grabbed the container of salt.

"Go for it." Sam nodded.

"Right." Dean said before smashing the glass with his poker.

They all noticed that the room got colder and they whirled around as Sandover appeared beside Dean. He flung him into the wall and then did the same to Sam. Elena flipped open the salt and flung some on him, causing him to disappear.

"Oh. Nice." Dean sighed as he got up.

Sandover appeared behind him once more and Sam called his name, throwing him a poker. Dean whirled around and swung the iron bar with accuracy, causing Sandover to disappear once more.

"Nice catch." Sam said, walking to the other poker that was lying on the floor.

"Right?" Dean said with a smile, sounding exhilarated.

Sandover appeared between them and they swung at him at the same time as Elena ran to the gloves, lifting them out of the display case. Sandover appeared first behind Dean, then Sam, trying to dodge their attacks. When he appeared between them once more, he threw them both into the wall and headed towards Elena, who was pulling a lighter out of the bag. His hands sparked as he reached for her but she flipped the lighter open and held the flame to the gloves, watching as they caught fire. She looked up to see the ghost burn up, yelling as he did so. She dropped the burning gloves and sat back, wiping her forehead and shaking her head.

"That was amazing." Sam said, grinning like a child.

"Right? Right?" Dean said, laughing as he grinned stupidly as well.

"Idiots." Elena commented, rolling her eyes as she picked herself up off the floor.

* * *

Dean handed the first aid kit from his desk over to Elena as she held her hand out. Then he sat next to Sam on the desk as she stood in front of them.

"Man, I gotta tell you, I've never had so much fun in my life." Dean said, grinning over at Sam.

"Me neither." Sam said, smiling back.

"Was a hell of a workout too, wasn't it?" Dean asked, causing the other two to roll their eyes.

"Stay still." Elena berated him.

"Sorry." He said, turning his head back to her.

"We should keep doing this." Sam suggested, causing Elena to look over at him for a moment before looking back at Dean.

"I know." Dean replied, looking up at Elena.

"I mean it. There gotta be other ghosts out there. We could help a lot of people." Sam said.

"Right, we'd be like the Ghostfacers." Dean chuckled, shaking his head before he caught sight of her stern face and remained still again.

"No, really. I mean, for real." Sam said seriously.

"What? Like, quit our jobs and hit the road?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked over at him.

"Exactly." Sam nodded

"How would we live?" Dean questioned.

"Uh..."

"You gotta be kidding me. How would we get by? With stolen credit cards? Huh? Eating diner food drenched in saturated fats? Sharing a crap motel room every night?" Dean scoffed, making Elena hide a smile as she moved onto Sam.

"That's all just details." Sam shrugged.

"Details are everything. You don't wanna go fighting ghosts without any health insurance." Dean said seriously.

"All right. Um. Confession." Sam offered.

"What?" Dean asked, sounding a little hesitant

"Remember those dreams I told you about with the ghosts?" Sam asked.

"Yeah?" Dean said.

"I was fighting them."

"Okay."

"With you… and Elena. We were these, like, hunters, and we were friends. More like brothers, really. I mean, what if that's who we really are? I mean, you saw us back there, working together. The ghost was scrambling people's brains. What if it scrambled ours?" Sam said, causing Elena to look at him with surprise.

"That's insane." Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"Is it? Think about it for just one second. What if we think this is our life, but it's not?" Sam said, gesturing around.

"Hey, man, the ghost is dead and we're still standing. I mean, I'm sorry, but…" Dean said, standing up.

"Look, all I know is this isn't who we're supposed to be." he said desperately.

"No. I'm Dean Smith, okay? Director of Sales and Marketing. I went to Stanford. My father's name is Bob, my mother's name is Ellen, and my sister's name is Jo." Dean said, gesturing forcefully.

"When was the last time you talked to them? To any of them?" Sam demanded.

"Okay, you're upset. You're upset, you're confused…" Dean listed.

"Yeah, cause I only moved here cause I just broke up with my fiancée, Madison. But I called her number and I got a damn animal hospital." Sam informed him.

"Okay. What are you saying? Are you trying to say that my family isn't real? Huh? That we've been injected with fake memories? Come on." Dean said, shaking his head as he walked around the desk and Elena backed away from Sam to watch them with apprehension.

"All I know is, I got this feeling in my gut. And I know.. I know that deep down, you gotta be feeling it too. We're supposed to be something else. You're not just some corporate douchebag. This isn't you. I know you." Sam stressed.

"Know me? You don't know me, pal. You should go." Dean said, shaking his head.

Sam sighed, shaking his head as well before he walked out of the office.

"Can you believe that guy?" he scoffed, looking at Elena who was biting her lip.

"I should go home." she said, sounding a little sad.

"What? But…" he began to argue.

She smiled sadly and stepped forward, leaning up to kiss his forehead.

"Get some sleep, boss. You'll need it for tomorrow. Lots of paperwork." She sighed, turning to walk out of the office.

* * *

Sam glared around, his nerves practically on fire as the incessant ringing filled his ears. He began to twitch, like he was dying to get out of the chair and kill a ghost or something. His eyes lifted and widened when he saw a familiar figure leaning against the wall. Elena smirked at him and cocked her head to the side as if to say, 'you ready?'. He looked down at the phone and back up at her before standing, pulling the iron poker out from underneath his desk. He lifted it high and brought it down on the phone angrily, smashing it to pieces as the room filled with silence except for one noise, Elena's delighted laughter, making people think she was crazy too.

"I quit." Sam announced calmly before ripping his headset off and throwing it on the desk.

He walked away from the cubicle and towards Elena.

"I'm so proud of you." she said as they strode off, acting as though she was wiping a tear from her eye.

Then she tossed him some keys.

"Parking garage, top level, black Impala. I'll meet you there." she said, veering off towards the elevator and pressing up.

* * *

Dean was busy typing at his computer, flashes of the previous night's events going through his head, when Adler knocked on the door and walked in.

"Got a minute? Sorry I wasn't announced but your assistant isn't out there." Adler said.

"Sure, of course." Dean said, standing up as he shut the door.

He gestured for him to sit down and he did the same.

"How are you feeling, Dean?" Adler asked, leaning back and crossing his legs.

"Uh, great." Dean said, nodding with a fake smile.

"You look a little tired. Been working hard, I gather."

"Yeah." He said, his eyes shifting slightly.

"Ah, don't be modest. I hear everything. And I'm pleased with what I'm hearing." Adler said, grinning at him.

A knock sounded on the door and they turned to it as it opened to reveal Elena in a very non-work outfit.

"Oh, come on in." Adler said, gesturing to her.

"I don't want to interrupt." She said hesitantly, looking at Adler.

"Nonsense. You're welcome in here. I do think you should be here for this." he said, turning back to Dean, who was looking up at Elena hopefully as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Dean, it's important to me that you're happy." Adler said, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket and handing it to Dean.

"How's that for a bonus?" he asked.

Dean looked down at the paper and choked a little. "That's very generous."

"Purely selfish. Wanna make sure you're not going anywhere." Adler said proudly.

"Wow. Are you sure?" he asked.

"Positive. You are Sandover material, son. Real go-getter. Carving your own way." Adler said.

"Well, thanks. I try." Dean replied, smiling.

Elena frowned at them.

"I see big things in your future. Maybe even senior VP, Eastern Great Lakes Division. Don't get me wrong, you'll have to work for it. Seven days a week, lunch at your desk, but in eight to ten short years, that could be you." Adler said before he turned back to Elena.

"And you could be the assistant of our VP." He said.

"Oh… wow. No." she said, shaking her head with a laugh.

Dean took off his headset as they stared at her.

"I came in here to quit. I'm leaving." She said, pointing at the door as Adler's eyes narrowed at her and Dean looked surprised.

"You're leaving?" he asked.

She nodded slowly.

"I'm going with Sam… to do that thing we talked about last night." She said, her eyes flashing to Adler as she got a stubborn look on her face.

Dean stared at her before looking back at Adler.

"Uh, well, thank you. Thank you, sir. It's, um... but..." Dean said, looking back at her as he handed the paper back.

"I am giving my notice." He said, standing up.

"This is a joke. You're kidding me, right?" Adler demanded, standing as well.

"No. I've… I recently… uh, very recently realized that I have some other work I have to do. It's, uh, very important to me." he said.

A big smile formed on Elena's face and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Other work? Another company?" Adler asked, looking between them.

"No, I—it's hard to explain. Um. It's just that this… this is… it's just… it's not who I'm supposed to be." Dean said, making Elena nod her head

Suddenly Adler broke out into a grin and both Dean and Elena's smiles fell.

"What?" Dean asked, confused by his sudden glee.

"Dean, Dean, Dean. Finally." He sighed, leaning forward to press two fingers to his forehead.

Dean flinched as his eyes squeezed shut and flew open. He stared around the office wildly.

"What the hell? Why am I wearing a tie? My God, am I hungry." He said roughly, placing his hand over his stomach.

He looked up at Elena with wide eyes as memories of his other self filled his mind. Adler laughed loudly, looking between them as Elena stared warily at him.

"Welcome back." he said.

"Wait. You're the guy from the hotel room. Did I… did I just get touched by… you're an angel, aren't you?" Dean demanded.

"I'm Zachariah." He said, reaching out his hand to shake.

"Oh, great. That's all I need is another one of you guys." He growled, pacing.

"I'm hardly another one, Dean. I'm Castiel's superior. Believe me, I had no interest in popping down here into one of these smelly things." Zachariah said, gesturing down to his body with disgust.

"But after the unfortunate situation with Uriel, I felt it necessary to pay a visit. Get my ducks in a row." Zachariah said, looking back at Elena.

"We are not your ducks." She snapped.

"Starting with your attitude. Both of you" Zachariah said with narrow yes.

"Oh, so, what? This was all some sort of a lesson? Is that what you're telling me? Wow. Very creative." Dean scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"You should see my decoupage." The angel said proudly.

"Gross. No thank you. So, what? I'm just hallucinating all this? Is that it?" Dean asked.

"Not at all. Real place, real haunting. Just plunked you in the middle without the benefit of your memories. Don't worry, we had you protected real good." Zachariah gestured back to Elena.

"Just to shake things up? Hm? So you guys can have fun watching us run around like ass clowns in monkey suits?" he demanded.

"To prove to you that the path you're on is truly in your blood. You're a hunter. Not because your dad made you, not because God called you back from hell, but because it is what you are. And you love it. You'll find your way to it in the dark every single time and you're miserable without it. Dean, let's be real here. You're good at this. You'll be successful. You will stop it."

"Stop what? The apocalypse, huh? Lucifer? What? Be specific, man." Dean snapped.

"You'll do everything you're destined to do. All of it. But I know, I know. You're not strong enough. You're scared. You got daddy issues. You can't do it. Right?" Zachariah taunted.

"Angel or not, I will stab you in your face." Dean threatened, glaring at him and making Elena smirk.

"All I'm saying is it's how you look at it. Most folks live and die without moving anything more than the dirt it takes to bury them. You get to change things." Zachariah said, spreading his arms out as if expecting worship for his words.

Dean turned away, staring out the window.

"Save people, maybe even the world. All the while you drive a classic car and fornicate with women. This isn't a curse. It's a gift. So for God's sakes, Dean, quit whining about it. Look around. There are plenty of fates worse than yours. So are you with me? You wanna go steam yourself another latte? Or are you ready to stand up and be who you really are?" Zachariah asked, making him turn back to the angel.

"Right now? I'm gonna get out of here." Dean said, turning back and walking to Elena.

She reached out her hand and laced it with his.

"You can't fool me, Dean. You've already made your decision." Zachariah called as they walked out.

They both ignored him as they climbed into the elevator. Dean sighed and rubbed his forehead as they rode down in the elevator alone.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Just… confused." He admitted.

"Well… maybe I can help." She said, turning him towards her.

He smiled at her, unable to resist the grin on her face.

"It's been too long." She mumbled, leaning up and kissing him passionately.

"Maybe we should go through an alternative universe again if I get that when we get out." he said as they walked out of the elevator, both a little ruffled.

Elena grinned back at him as they walked out of the building. They climbed up to the top of the parking garage and walked towards the Impala.

"Oh baby, I missed you." he sighed, running his hands over the trunk.

Elena rolled her eyes and walked to the passenger door as Sam rolled it down.

"What the hell just happened?" he asked.

She grinned as she leaned into the car.

"Angel shenanigans. Nothing to concern yourself over." She waved off as she watched Dean get into the driver's seat.

Sam looked over at him with a worried expression before looking back at her. Elena's smile dropped as she remembered that they were back in reality and, in reality, things weren't going so great.

* * *

**About the story:**

**1. Elena knew everything the entire time, if that wasn't clear. If you want to see her reactions to all of it and how she knew everything, I can write an outtake that will be separate from the story.**

**2. Next chapter is Chuck!**

**3. Review please!**

* * *

**Questions: **

**Guest: I am not sure if Sam will have a love interest yet. I'm still thinking over that because I find it difficult to figure out who I would want him with. To your second question, I always listen to a certain song or few songs while I write a chapter but it's not always the same songs. If you would like, I can list them on the chapters as I write.**

**neontreeslover: SPOILER ALERT. In the sequel, in a complicated string of events, Elena will develop more powers. I am not quite so sure of what they will be but I can tell you that Castiel will help her learn how to use these powers. There will be a lot of Castiel/Elena scenes in the sequel. She will also receive that sword that we saw Castiel use to kill Esther in the sequel. **

**Dark-Supernatural-Angel: MINOR SPOILER ALERT For now, and this will almost definitely change, Elena can only heal herself, Sam, and Dean because that is all the guardian is supposed to be able to do. Castiel told her when they were in 1979 that she couldn't heal everyone. I didn't really explain that more but that is how it is. But Elena is a special case and she will find a way to break through those guidelines. Also, I plan on having the Originals be called in on a case in the sequel to help Elena out (through that favor that Elijah owes her). It will be both awesome (because Originals and Winchesters and Castiel are involved) and hilarious (because Originals and Winchesters and Castiel are involved). **

**TheElegantFaerie: When it comes to Gabriel, he will have a verrrrrry verrrrry important part. Like, really really super important to Elena. And Jo and Elena will be friends, don't you worry.**

**DrawingMyHeartOut: SPOILER ALERT No, I don't plan on Jo dying. And yes, I have a tumblr. It's the same as my penname on this site. And thank you so much for calling me perfect! You have no idea how happy it makes me when people think I'm amazing because my opinion of my writing is… less than great. Tell me what your name on tumblr is so that I can follow you please!**

**Nyssandria: Elena is still getting used to her powers. If she was battling a normal demon (Ruby or something) she would be able to fight them equally. But Alastair is one of the strongest demons. The same thing with the angels. Uriel is really strong and so fighting him isn't easy because Elena is still learned about her powers.**

**slayerdiaries: Wow a lot of people are asking about Jo. Yes she will be in the story and she will be awesome.**

**LineChokor: I'm not going to tell you the situation but I can tell you that it will be early on (around the ninth or tenth chapter) of the sequel. And Elena is very upset when she says it.**

**If I didn't get to your question, I'm sorry I must have accidentally overlooked it. Let me know in your review and I'll answer it in the next chapter.**

* * *

**BIG SPOILER ALERTS FOR EVERYONE! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! – **

**1. Castiel said this in his explanation; "They were ready to destroy you until an angel spoke up, suggesting that a guardian be created out of your line." The angel who spoke up is… Gabriel. He is the angel who watches over Elena and made sure that she was born and all that. Castiel is sort of a secondary angel guardian for her (and there will be a story explaining why he is). And, like I said to TheElegantFaerie, Gabriel is very important to Elena in the sequel.**

**2. There will be a doppelganger chapter in the sequel with Katherine switching identities with Elena. But… the twist is… Katherine is working with Elena!**

**3. In the sequel, Elena and Castiel's friendship grows like crazy. But Elena also will have a (very very good) reason to extremely dislike all of the other angels (this excludes Gabriel, of course). **

**4. I am going to do the sequel a little different than I did this part of the story. First of all, I'm going to be going off and doing other cases that weren't shown on the show (or at least I'm going to try). Second of all, the episodes might be all out of order just for the sake of the storyline. **

**REVIEW PLEASE!**


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to JMHUW, neontreeslover, TheElegantFaerie, Thera-Rocklynn, Meowgli, RHatch89, Nicole0203, Nyssandria, Dark Alana, Pypera, DrawingMyHeartOut, Dark-Supernatural Angel, chiwi, Hollywood17, slayerdiaries, and LineChokor for reviewing!**

**To Dark Alana, thanks for showing me that thing to do on my profile. It's much easier than what I've been doing.**

* * *

Elena looked up at the sign of the store before she shook her head and entered after the brothers. They walked to the counter of the comic book store as she began to walk around, not really wanting to take part in the interview with the nerdy looking cashier.

"Uh... can I help you?" she heard the man ask Sam and Dean

"Sure hope so. Agents DeYoung and Shaw. Just need to ask you a few questions." Dean said, pulling out his badge at the same time as Sam.

"Notice anything strange in the building, last couple of days?" Sam asked.

"Like what?" the cashier asked, sounding bored.

"Well, some other tenants reported flickering lights." Dean shrugged, looking around the store.

When his eyes met Elena's, she smiled and he smiled back tenderly.

"Uh, I don't think so. Why?" he asked.

"What about noises? Any skittering in the walls? Kind of like rats?" Sam questioned.

"And the FBI is investigating a rodent problem?" Cashier said skeptically.

"What about cold spots? Feel any sudden drops in temperature?" Sam asked, ignoring his comment.

"I knew it! You guys are LARPing, aren't you?" Cashier grinning as he jumped up, looking as if his day was made.

Elena looked at him with surprise as she made her way to the bargain bin and began to casually look through the assortment of comic books and novels.

"Excuse me?" Dean said, confused at what the man was saying.

"You're fans." Cashier said.

"Fans of what?" Sam said at the same time Dean said, "What is LARPing?"

"Like you don't know." The cashier said, smiling at them as if they made his day.

He took in their confused looks and sighed.

"Live-Action Role-Play! And pretty hardcore, too." He said, gesturing to the clothing.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about." Dean said.

Elena noticed something and picked it up.

"Supernatural." She murmured, looking at the picture of the two men on the cover, one of them shirtless and holding an ax.

"You're asking questions like the building's haunted. Like those guys from the books. What are they called? Uh... 'Supernatural'." The cashier said, causing her to look up at him and back down at the book.

"Uh… guys?" She said, turning it over to read the back.

"Two guys, use fake IDs with rock aliases, hunt down ghosts, demons, vampires. What are their names? Uh... Steve and Dirk? Uh, Sal and Dane?" the cashier said as Sam and Dean listened to him instead of her.

"Sam and Dean?" Sam asked hesitantly, sounding as though someone was playing a joke on him.

"Guys?" she said, opening the book.

"That's it!" the cashier said, excited.

"You're saying this is a book?" Dean demanded.

"Books. It was a series. Didn't sell a lot of copies, though. Kind of had more of an underground cult following." He said, walking around the counter and up to where she was standing, staring down at the book with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.

"That's the first one, I think." He said, pointing at the book in Elena's hand.

"Let me see that." Dean said, taking it from her. "'Supernatural' by Carver Edlund."

He flipped it over to look at the back as she stared up at them with wide eyes.

"Along a lonely California highway, a mysterious woman in white lures men to their deaths." Dean said, looking over at Sam, who grabbed the book.

"We're gonna need all the copies of 'Supernatural' you've got." Sam snapped, looking at up at the cashier.

* * *

Elena bit her lip as she curled against Dean's back, reading the book over his shoulder as they laid on the bed. She could tell by the way his jaw muscles were twitching that he was frowning, and quite frustrated. Sam was seated behind them at the table by the window looking around on his laptop.

"This is freakin' insane. How's this guy know all this stuff?" Dean snapped, closing the book and leaning back against her.

Elena reached down and ran her fingers through his hair.

"You got me." Sam shrugged.

"I can't say I'm sad I wasn't there for the Bloody Mary thing. That used to terrify me as a kid." Elena commented.

"Everything is in here. I mean everything. From the racist truck to… to me having sex. I'm full-frontal in here, dude." Dean said, holding the book up before throwing it back on the bed.

"Maybe if you kept it in your pants…" she whispered, trailing off as she pressed a kiss to his temple.

He scoffed and shimmied out of her hold, walking over to Sam as she continued to lay there, turning over to watch them.

"How come we haven't heard of them before?" Dean asked, sitting down.

"They're pretty obscure. I mean, almost zero circulation. Uh, started in '05. The publisher put out a couple dozen before going bankrupt. And, uh, the last one… 'No Rest For The Wicked'… ends with you going to hell." Sam said, turning the computer to face Dean.

"I reiterate. Freaking insane." The older brother said, browsing whatever site Sam had pulled up. "Check it out. There's actually fans. There's not many of them, but still. Did you read this?"

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"Although for fans, they sure do complain a lot. Listen to this… Simpatico says 'the demon story line is trite, clichéd, and overall craptastic'. Yeah, well, screw you, Simpatico. We lived it." Dean scoffed, making Sam and Elena laugh lightly.

"Yeah. Well, keep on reading. It gets better." Sam urged him.

"There are 'Sam girls' and 'Dean girls' and… what's a 'slash fan'?" Dean asked, sounding a little confused.

'As in... Sam-slash-Dean. Together." Sam said, sounding disgusted.

Elena's eyes widened and she looked at them with a grimace.

"Like, together together?" Dean questioned, looking panicked.

"Yeah." Sam nodded, his jaw clenched.

"They do know we're brothers, right?"

"Doesn't seem to matter." He said.

"Oh, come on. That... that's just sick." Dean said, shaking his head as he closed the laptop in disgust.

He turned to face Elena and got a look in his eye. She suddenly knew what was coming. He jumped up and crossed the room. She shrieked as he jumped on her and covered her mouth with his. Her body immediately responded, curving up to him and her hands slid around his sides to his muscular back.

"You know I'm still here right?" Sam said, sounding uncomfortable.

Dean raised his hand and made a gesture that told him to go away.

"Dean, we're in a small town in Oklahoma. Where the hell am I gonna go?" he scoffed.

"You're a nerd. Go back to the comic book store. Come back… later." He mumbled against Elena's lips as his hands entangled in her hair.

When they heard the satisfying sound of the motel door closing, he drew away and looked at her, shuddering.

"I can't even…" he said, shaking his head.

"Don't think about it." she whispered, bringing his face back down to hers.

**LEMONY! (a little dirtier than it's been so far)**

His hands gripped the bottom of her t-shirt and yanked it over her head. Elena immediately did the same to his before he unhooked her bra and threw it across the room. His mouth immediately began kissing down to her chest, finding one of her hardened pebbles. Her mouth let out a slew of moans and whimpers as he lavished attention on it with his tongue, his finger circling and flicking the other one expertly. Elena was loving this. So far, Dean had been very gentle with her in their sexcapades. But now he was being very needy, like he was desperate. His hands slid down to her jeans, quickly unbuttoning them and pulling them off along with her underwear.

Her eyes popped open as she realized how quickly he'd gotten her naked. She reached down to pull him up so that she could undress him the rest of the way as well but he pushed her back down.

"Not yet." He said roughly, looking up at her with lust filled eyes.

She watched with wide eyes as he kissed down her stomach slowly and he spreaded her legs. So far, they'd only touched with their hands, not going much farther. She was given a moment to wonder if he was really going to do what she thought he was going to do before his finger slid up her drenched slit and caused her head to fall back. After he teased around her bundle of nerves and her entrance for a few moments, making her writhe and beg him for more, she felt something differently. Something amazingly different. Her head snapped up and she looked down to see his tongue running up the length of her womanhood. His green eyes, darkened with need, were looking up at her and it felt as though her entire body was set on fire.

"Oh… fuck! Dean!" she cried, her head falling back as his tongue circled her sweet spot and then flicked over it.

His tongue moved back down to her entrance and teased it for a few moments, making her hips buck off of the bed and back down as her head whipped back and forth. It was all too much but, at the same time, not even close to enough. He slowly moved his tongue back up to her spot and his fingers replaced it at her entrance. He slid one in slowly as his tongue circled the spot. As he pulled it back out and added another, his tongue slid over the spot very slowly, making her scream out his name. He began moving his fingers very slowly in sync with his tongue and she was practically sobbing for him to go faster. Slowly but surely, he moved a little bit faster. Then a little bit more. Her body was crying with need as he continued. The noises coming out of her mouth were running together and forming one long cry for more as her hands flew down and tangled in his hair.

She felt herself approaching her climax and he could hear it in the way she was screaming for release. When his mouth opened and he sucked her bundle of nerves into his mouth, his teeth scraping over the spot lightly as his tongue teased it relentlessly, she was lost. Her walls clenched down on his fingers as her body writhed on the bed. Nonsense babbling was escaping from her mouth as her back arched and her hands yanked on his hair. Finally, her mouth formed one long word.

"Deeeeeeaaaaaannnnn!"

As she collapsed back on the bed, her body covered in a sheen layer of sweat and her breathing sharp and quick, he pulled away from her and sat up. Her eyes opened slightly to see him licking his lips and then wiping his chin off.

"Wow." She breathed, unable to say anything else.

He just grinned and crawled up her body.

"I am with you." he said possessively, burying his face in her hair.

"Yeah." She agreed, nodding as she wrapped her arms around him.

When her body finally calmed down after a few minutes, she turned them over quickly, grinning down at him.

"You know, it's kind of a turn on, how strong you are." He said, grinning up at her.

She blushed and smirked at the same time.

"It's my turn." She said, leaning down and kissing him as she undid his belt and yanked it through the loop of his jeans.

When they were gone, along with his boxers, she wrapped her length around his manhood immediately, not wasting time, and began stroking it as she watched his face. His eyes fluttered closed and his mouth formed a perfect 'o' as a groan escaped from his throat. She kissed down his body slowly as she stroked him, satisfied with the way he trembled underneath her. When she got to his hips, she placed a kiss on one of the bones before slowly kissing across his thigh. When her warm breath washed over his manhood, he bucked his hips in anticipation. Elena grinned and positioned her mouth above his tip. Her hand continued stroking him as her tongue slid out from between her teeth and took a slow, experimental lick around his tip.

He let out a moan and she looked up to see him watching her as she'd watched him. Elena kept her eyes on him as she took the tip into her mouth, her tongue flicking and her hand still sliding up and down the length of him.

"Fuck, Elena… that… fuck!" he shouted as she took more of him in her mouth, sliding down so that the tip was almost hitting the back of her throat.

He twitched once and she became still. Slowly she began to move up and down, the noises he was making spurring her on. The curses were extremely attractive as she pulled away and ran her tongue up and down the length before flicking it over the tip and taking the entire length into her mouth once more. She felt him getting close when his hips began to grind furiously and he pleaded with her to continue. When she felt him swelling in her mouth, she took as much as him in as she could and swallowed, causing him to climax with a shout of her name, the liquid hitting the back of her throat. When he finally slowed down and became still, Elena slowly pulled away and sat up, swallowing before she grinned down at him.

"Wow." He sighed, repeating her earlier sentiment.

"See what I mean?" she said, leaning down and straddling his legs as she laid her head on his chest.

**LEMONY OVER!**

* * *

"We got to find this Carver Edlund." Dean said as he pulled a shirt on.

"Yeah, that might not be so easy." Sam said, shoving his laptop into its case

"Why not?" Elena asked, walking out of the bathroom braiding her long hair over her shoulder.

Sam looked between them with a frown, taking in their wet hair and refusing to think about what went down in the hotel room when he left.

"No tax records, no known address. Looks like 'Carver Edlund' is a pen name." he informed them.

"Somebody's gotta know who he is." Dean argued, picking up the weapons bag.

"We could start with the publisher, I mean whoever it is has to know his real name." Elena suggested, as she shrugged on her backpack.

* * *

Elena looked around the house as she stood with Sam and Dean, the publisher looking at them.

"So you published the 'Supernatural' books?" Dean asked as she walked towards the living room..

"Yep. Yeah. Gosh. These books... You know, they never really got the attention they deserved. All anybody wants to read anymore is that romance crap. You know… 'Doctor Sexy, M.D.'? Please." The woman, Amelia Coffman, scoffed as she looked down at the books lined up on a bookshelf.

"Right. Well, we're hoping that our article can... shine a light on an underappreciated series." Sam said, smiling awkwardly at her.

"Yeah, yeah, because, you know, if we got a little bit of good press then m-maybe we could start publishing again." She stammered with a nervous smile.

"No, no, no, no. God, no. I mean, why… why would you want to do that? You know, it's, uh, such a complete series, what with Dean going to hell and all." Dean covered his outburst, looking almost pained.

"Oh, my god! That was one of my favorite ones, because Dean was so... strong... and sad and brave. And Sam... I mean, the best parts are when they'd cry."

Elena fought back laughter as Sam and Dean both looked traumatized.

"You know, like in… in 'Heart' when Sam had to kill Madison, the first woman since Jessica he really loved. And in 'Home' when Dean had to call John and ask him for help."

Dean looked over at Elena and Sam, mouthing "what the fuck".

"Gosh... if only real men were so open and in touch with their feelings." Amelia said as she paced back and forth.

"Real men?" Dean said, staring at her as she turned back around.

"I mean, no offense. How often do you cry like that, hmm?" she said, trying to make her point as she looked between Sam and Dean.

"Well, right now, I'm crying on the inside." he said in an annoyed voice.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" she said.

"Lady, this whole thing is funny." Dean said with a chuckle, shaking his head.

"How do I know you three are legit, hmm?" she demanded.

"Oh, trust me. We're legit." Elena assured her.

"Well, I don't want any smart-ass article making fun of my boys." She said, narrowing her eyes and making them all shift uncomfortably.

"No! No, no, no. Never." Sam stuttered, trying to reassure her.

"No, that's..." Dean said, shaking his head.

"We… we are actually, um... big fans." Sam said, wincing as if the statement caused him actualy pain.

"Hmm. You've read the books?" Amelia asked, skeptical.

"Cover to cover." Dean nodded

"Mm-hm." Elena agreed.

"What's the year and model of the car?"

"It's a 1967 Chevy Impala." Dean answered.

"What's May 2nd?"

"That's my…" Elena elbowed Sam in the ribs.

"Uh... that's Sam's birthday." He corrected himself.

"January 24th is Dean's." Dean threw in.

"Sam's score on the LSAT?"

"One... seventy-four?" Sam said questioningly, making Elena and Dean look at him with incredulous expressions.

"Dean's favorite song?"

"It's a tie. Between Zep's 'Ramble On' and 'Traveling Riverside Blues'." Elena said, smirking over at Dean as he looked at her with an impressed look.

The publisher looked at them all with narrowed eyes before smiling politely and nodding.

"Okay. Okay. What do you want to know?" she asked.

"What's Carver Edlund's real name?" Sam asked.

"Oh, no. I… No. Sorry, I can't do that." Amelia stammered, shaking her head.

"We just want to talk to him. You know, get the 'Supernatural' story in his own words." Elena said.

"He's very private. It's like Salinger." She said, her eyes wide.

Sam sighed, looking annoyed and little violated.

"Please. Like I said… we are, um... big... big fans." He pulled his shirt aside and showed off the tattoo on his chest.

Sam turned to Dean and gave him a pointed look, causing him to pull his shirt aside as well. Then they both turned to Elena and raised their eyebrows. She sighed frustratingly and turned, pulling her jacket off of her shoulders to reveal the tattoo that was visible on her shoulderblade.

"Okay." Amelia sighed as she turned back around.

"His name's Chuck Shurley. And he's a genius, so don't piss him off." she said, writing down a name and an address before handing it over to Dean with an attempt at a seductive smile.

* * *

Elena shoved her hands in the pocket of her jacket as they walked up to the broken down looking house. They stopped at the door and Sam and Dean shared a look before shrugging. Dean reached out and rang the doorbell. The door opened slowly to reveal a man in a bathrobe with unkempt hair and a scruffy beard. Elena would have been judgmental of his outfit if she weren't in her most comfortable clothing after the long drive.

"You Chuck Shurley?" Dean asked, looking the small man up and down.

"The Chuck Shurley who wrote the 'Supernatural' books?" Sam demanded.

"Maybe. Why?" he asked hesitantly.

"I'm Dean. This is Sam. The Dean and Sam you've been writing about." Dean said, gesturing between himself and his brother.

The door slammed closed and Elena fought back a grin as Dean rolled his eyes and pressed the doorbell again.

"Look, uh... I appreciate your enthusiasm. Really, I do. It's, uh, it's always nice to hear from the fans. But, uh, for your own good, I strongly suggest you get a life." Chuck sighed as he opened the door.

He gave them an exasperated look and then tried to close the door but Dean stopped it with his hand.

"See, here's the thing. We have a life. You've been using it to write your books." He said, shoving the door open and walking in, forcing Chuck to stumble backwards into the house.

"Now, wait a minute. Now, this isn't funny." He stammered, looking panicked as the two tall brothers loomed over him with Elena behind them just standing there.

"Damn straight, it's not funny." Dean growled.

"Look, we just want to know how you're doing it." Sam said.

"I'm not doing anything." Chuck replied, sounding confused and terrified.

"Are you a hunter?" Dean demanded.

"What? No. I'm a writer." He said, continuing to back away from them as they advanced forward.

"Then how do you know so much about demons?" Sam asked.

Chuck fell backwards on the couch and Sam and Dean leaned over him slightly.

"And Tulpas, and changelings?" Dean asked.

"Boys, be nice. I think he's telling the truth." Elena said, putting her hands on their shoulders.

"Is this some kind of 'Misery' thing? Ah, it is, isn't it? It's a 'Misery' thing!" Chuck demanded, sitting up and looking at them with wide eyes.

"No, it's not a 'Misery' thing. Believe me, we are not fans!" Dean snapped.

"Well, then, what do you want?!" Chuck said, his voice slightly high pitched.

"I'm Sam. And that's Dean." Sam said, gesturing between them.

"Sam and Dean are fictional characters. I made them up! They're not real!" He said desperately.

* * *

Elena stood on the porch as Dean opened the trunk and Sam, who was holding Chuck's arm, pulled him forward to look into the arsenal.

"Are those real guns?" Chuck asked, panicking again.

"Yup. This is real rock salt, these are real fake IDs." Dean said, pulling the FBI badg out of his pocket.

"Well, I got to hand it to you guys. You really are my number one fans." he chuckled nervously. "That's, that's awesome. So, I… I think I've got some posters in the house."

"Chuck, stop." Dean sighed, turning to him.

"Please. Wait. Please, don't hurt me." Chuck said, stumbling backwards and looking around for an escape.

"How much do you know? Do you know about the angels? Or Lilith breaking the seals?" Elena asked, starting forward and telling the brothers with her eyes to let her do the talking as all that they were doing was tempting poor Chuck to wet his pants.

"Wait a minute. How do you know about that?" he asked, looking back at her.

"The question is how do you." Dean said.

"Because I wrote it?" Chuck said questioningly.

"You kept writing?" Sam asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Yeah, even after the publisher went bankrupt, but those books never came out. Okay, wait a minute. This is some kind of joke, right? Did that… did Phil put you up to this?" he asked, looking as though he hoped Phil put them up to it.

"Well, nice to meet you. I'm Dean Winchester, and this is my brother, Sam." Dean said.

"I'm Elena Gilbert." Elena said from beside him.

His eyes widened and she knew that he finally believed them.

"The last names were never in the books. Elena was never in any of the books. I never told anybody about that. I never even wrote that down." Chuck said, terrified again.

* * *

They watched from the doorway as Chuck poured himself a generous amount of whiskey and drank it in a few gulps, throwing the glass in the sink. When he turned to face them, he groaned and put his hand to his head.

"Oh! Oh, you're still there."

"Yup." Dean nodded.

"You're not a hallucination?" Chuck asked hopefully.

"Nope." Sam said, shaking his head.

"Well, there's only one explanation. Obviously I'm a god." He shrugged, walking past them and into the living room, collapsing on the couch miserably.

"You're not a god." Sam assured him.

"How else do you explain it? I write things and then they come to life. Yeah, no, I'm definitely a god. A cruel, cruel, capricious god. The things I put you through… the physical beatings alone." He said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, we're still in one piece." Dean said, looking at Elena as if she could help.

"I killed your father. I burned your mother alive. And then you had to go through the whole horrific deal again with Jessica." He said, gesturing to Sam.

"Chuck..." Elena sighed.

"All for what? All for the sake of literary symmetry. I toyed with your lives, your emotions, for... entertainment."

"You didn't toy with us, Chuck, okay? You didn't create us." Sam said, trying to convince him.

"Did you really have to live through the bugs?" Chuck asked, looking up at them with wide eyes.

"Yeah." Dean nodded.

"What about the ghost ship?"

"Yes, that too." He said, sounding exhausted.

"I am so sorry. I mean, horror is one thing, but to be forced to live bad writing... if I would have known it was real, I would have done another pass." Chuck said, gesturing wildly as he threw himself back on the couch.

"Chuck, you're not a god!" Dean said.

"We think you're probably just psychic." Sam added.

"No. If I were psychic, you think I'd be writing? Writing is hard." Chuck said pathetically, looking at them with soulful eyes.

"It seems that somehow, you're just... focused on our lives." Sam said.

"Yeah, like laser-focused. Are you working on anything right now?" Dean questioned.

"Holy crap." Chuck said, his eyes widening.

"What?" Elena asked.

"The, uh, latest book? It's, uh, it's kind of weird." He said, his eyes averting from theirs.

"Weird how?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"It's very Vonnegut." He said.

"'Slaughterhouse-Five' Vonnegut or 'Cat's Cradle' Vonnegut?" Dean asked intently.

"What?" Sam and Elena said, turning to him with surprised eyes, shocked that he named two Vonnegut books.

It wasn't that they thought he was stupid, but his intelligence didn't come from books. It came from experience and somehow naturally knowing how to handle situations.

"What?" Dean said defensively, shrugging at them.

"It's, uh, 'Kilgore Trout' Vonnegut. I wrote myself into it. I wrote myself, at my house... confronted by my characters." He said.

* * *

Elena and Dean sat on two dryers side by side as Sam loaded his laundry into a washer. They'd gone to the laundromat, promising Chuck that they would be back. The owner attempted to come over and shoo them off of the washer but one intimidating look from Dean had the man running away with his tail between his legs.

"I'm sitting in a laundromat, reading about myself sitting in a laundromat reading about myself. My head hurts." Dean groaned as he scanned the manuscript.

"There's got to be something this guy's not telling us." Sam said as he tossed his darks into the machine.

Dean began to read out loud, making Elena smile.

"Sam tossed his gigantic darks into the machine. He was starting to have doubts about Chuck, about whether he was telling the whole truth." Dean said.

"Stop it." Sam snapped.

"'Stop it,' Sam said. Guess what you do next." Dean said, smirking up at him.

Sam turned back towards the machine.

"'Sam turned his back on Dean, his face brooding and pensive.' I mean, I don't know how he's doing it, but this guy is doing it. I can't see your face, but those are definitely your 'brooding and pensive' shoulders." Dean said, laughing as Sam sighed frustratingly.

Elena peeked over at the manuscript.

"You just thought Dean was a dick." She announced.

Sam turned around, looking impressed.

"The guy's good." He nodded.

Dean's face fell and he did not look impressed.

* * *

Elena sat in a chair watching as Chuck paced nervously. Sam and Dean were leaning against the wall behind her.

"So... you wrote another chapter?" Sam asked, gesturing to the manuscript in his hand.

"This was all so much easier before you were real." He said, shaking his head.

"We can take it; just spit it out." Dean told him.

"You especially are not gonna like this." Chuck warned them.

"I didn't like hell." Dean said, sounding unimpressed.

"It's Lilith. She's coming for Sam."

Elena stood up immediately as Dean and Sam walked up to stand on either side of her.

"Coming to kill him?" Dean demanded.

"When?" Sam asked.

"Tonight." Chuck said.

"She's just gonna show up? Here?" Elena asked.

Chuck sat down and shakily put on a pair of glasses.

"Uh... let's see, uh…" Chuck

"Lilith patted the bed seductively. Unable to deny his desire, Sam succumbed, and they sank into the throes of fiery demonic passion." He read.

There was a moment of silence before Sam laughed. "You're kidding me, right?" he said.

"You think this is funny?" Dean asked.

"You don't? I mean, come on. 'Fiery demonic passion'?" Sam chuckled, gesturing to Chuck.

"It's just a first draft." The write offered.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Lilith is a little girl." Dean asked, turning to raise an eyebrow at Chuck.

"No, uh, this time she's a 'comely dental hygienist from Bloomington, Indiana'." He said.

"Great. Perfect. So what happens after the... 'fiery demonic' whatever?" the older brother asked.

""I don't know, it hasn't come to me yet.".

"Dean, look, there's nothing to worry about. Lilith and me? In bed?" Sam said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Dean turned to glare at him as he spoke to Chuck.

"How does this whole psychic thing of yours work?" he asked.

"You mean my process?" Chuck replied.

"Yes, your 'process'." Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, it usually starts with a headache. A really bad headache. Aspirin is useless, so... I drink. Until I fall asleep. The first time it happened, I thought it was just a crazy dream." Chuck said.

"The first time you dreamt about us?" Dean asked, sounding violated.

"It flowed. It just, it kept flowing. It still does. I… I can't stop it, really."

"You can't seriously believe…" Sam began.

"Humor me." Dean interrupted his brother.

Chuck pushed his hand out, handing the manuscript to Dean.

"Look, why don't we, we just..." he trailed off, taking the manuscript.

"… take a look at these and see what's what." He said, staring at Chuck strangely.

"You…" Dean chuckled humorlessly, shaking his head.

"...knew you were gonna ask for that. Yeah." Chuck nodded.

* * *

Elena sat in the backseat as Dean drove away from the town.

"Dean, come on." Sam scoffed as he read the manuscript in the passenger seat.

"The minivan accident wasn't that bad, but Dean was still seeing stars. He scratched absently at the pink flower Band-Aids on his face." he read.

Elena laughed quietly at the visual of pink flowers on Dean's face.

"So?" Dean asked, not getting the point.

"So, I've seen you gushing blood. You'd use duct tape and bar rags before you'd put on a pink flower Band-Aid." Sam said.

"What's your point?" he fired back.

"My point is this… all of this… is totally implausible, it's nuts."

"He's been right about everything so far. You think he's just gonna ground out at first now?" Dean snapped.

Sam scoffed and looked down at the manuscript.

"Dean slid behind the wheel of his beloved Impala and drove off, the plastic tarp on the rear window flapping like the wings of a crow."

"A tarp?" Dean said, his voice slightly higher-pitched.

"Yeah. On the rear window. And you drive it like that." Sam said, turning to look at him.

"Well, he might be wrong about the details, but doesn't mean he's wrong about the end result." Dean said, looking traumatized.

"So we're just gonna run?" Sam asked.

"Dude, we are a long way from ready for a face-to-face death match with Lilith." Dean replied.

Elena straightened up when they came up on a roadblock. Dean rolled down his window and a deputy bent down to talk to him.

"What seems to be the problem?" Dean asked.

"Bridge is out ahead." The deputy said, gesturing to the river.

"We're just trying to get out of town." Dean said.

"Yeah, afraid not." The man said, shaking his head.

"Is there a detour?" Elena asked, leaning forward.

"Nope."

"There's not a side road that takes us to the highway?" Dean questioned hopefully.

"To get to the highway, you have to cross that river. To cross the river, you have to take that bridge." The deputy said with a sympathetic face.

"How deep's the river?" Dean asked after a moment of silence.

"Sorry. Afraid you are gonna have to spend the night in town."

* * *

Elena sighed as she laid her head on her arms that were folded on the table. They'd gone to the nearest diner to figure out what to do.

"Hey, this could be a good thing. I mean, if this is what puts us on the path to Lilith, then all we got to do is get off the path." Dean said, looking down at the manuscript.

"How do you mean?" Sam asked.

"It's a blueprint of what not to do. I mean, if the pages say that we go left…" he trailed off.

"Then we go right." Sam nodded.

"Exactly. We get off-book. We never make it to the end. It's opposite day. It says that we, uh, we get into a fight. So… no fighting." Dean said.

Elena rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. It was highly unlikely that they would manage to not get in a fight.

"No research for you..." he said, pointing at Sam.

"No bacon cheeseburger for you." Sam interrupted.

Dean's head snapped up and he looked slightly put out.

"Yeah, no problem. I'll just order something else." he said, sounding sad as Elena reached out and rubbed his arm comfortingly.

They all looked up as the waitress approached.

"Hi, uh, what's good?" Dean asked.

"Well, if you like burgers, Oprah's girlfriend said we have the best bacon cheeseburgers in the country." She said in a bored tone.

Sam laughed as Dean looked devastated.

"Really?" he said.

"I'll just have the cobb salad, please." Sam said, grinning madly.

"I'll get the bacon cheeseburger and you can have a few bites." Elena said, smiling over at Dean.

He grinned at her and leaned down to press his lips to her softly.

"I'll have the... veggie tofu burger. Thanks." He said as he drew away.

The waitress nodded, taking their menus before turning to walk away.

"This whole thing's ridiculous." Sam said, shaking his head.

"Lilith is ridiculous?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"The idea of me hooking up with her is." He scoffed.

"Right. Cause something like that can never happen." Dean said, shaking his head as he went back to reading the manuscript.

Sam scowled at Dean for a moment before pulling his face under control.

"Dean, for the first time, we have warning that Lilith is close." He said, leaning in.

"So?" Dean said, almost daring Sam to finish his thought even though both of them knew what was coming..

"So... we've got the jump on her. If we know when she's coming, we know where she's… this is an opportunity." Sam said with a slight smile, making Elena stare at him with wide eyes and Dean look up from the manuscript with an incredulous face.

"Are you…" his fists clenched and Elena sensed that he was trying very hard not to get angry. "It frustrates me when you say such reckless things."

"Well, it frustrates me when you'd rather hide than fight." Sam shot back.

"Guys, you may not think so because you're not shouting or throwing punches, but this is you two fighting." Elena said, trying to stop them.

"Cobb salad for you. Bacon cheeseburger for you. And the tofu veggie burger for you." the waitress said once she approached the table, setting the plates in front of them.

"Thank you." Elena said, smiling up at her.

The waitress left and Dean leaned in close as he bent down and picked up his burger..

"It's not hiding. It's being smart. It's picking your battles. This is a battle that we are not ready to fight." He hissed before taking a bit bite of his burger.

His eyes widened and he grinned.

"Oh, my god. This is delicious. Tofu is amazing!" he announced happily.

"Erm, Dean…" Elena trailed off, looking between their plates.

The waitress ran up, looking flustered.

"I am so sorry. I gave you the bacon cheeseburger by mistake." She said, snatching it from underneath him and switching it with Elena's plate.

Dean looked sad again while Sam scowled down at his salad.

* * *

Elena felt her skin crawl as they pulled up to a dank-looking motel.

"Dude, this place charges by the hour." Sam scoffed, grimacing over at Dean.

"Yeah, well, the book says Lilith finds you at the Red Motel. Hence, the uh, hooker inn. It's opposite day, remember?" Dean reminded him.

Dean dropped his bag on one of beds and Elena flinched when a cloud of dust puffed into the air. He pulled out a few small drawstring bags, walking around the room and setting them in different places.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked, watching him with narrowed eyes.

"Couple of hex bags ought to Lilith-proof the room." Dean said.

"So, what? I'm supposed to just hole up here all night?" the younger Winchester demanded.

"That's exactly what you're gonna do, okay? And no research. I don't care what you do – use the Magic Fingers or watch Casa Erotica on Pay-Per-View." Dean said pointing at the television.

"Please don't watch Casa Erotica." Elena said, standing in the middle of the room because she didn't trust any surface enough to touch it.

"Oh, dude, come on." Sam complained as Dean pulled his laptop out of his bag.

"Just call it a little insurance." Dean said, shrugging with a satisfied grin.

"What are you gonna do?" Sam demanded, sounding childishly angry.

"Well, the pages say that I spend all day riding around in the Impala. So I'm gonna go park her. Behave yourself, would you? No homework. Watch him for me, would you?" Dean said to Elena.

He smiled, obviously pleased with himself, before he turned to walk out of the room. Elena looked up to see a fuming Sam drop into a chair. She looked around the room with terrified eyes. As she slowly made her way towards the bed that looked a little cleaner than the other, a cockroach ran out from underneath it. She shrieked and jumped backwards, scrambling away from it and jumping up onto the other wooden chair.

"You all right?" Sam asked, looking up at her with a questioning look.

"Please get it." she whimpered, pointing at the disgusting creature.

Sam peeked around to see the bug scuttling across the floor.

"Seriously?" he said.

"Sam!" she began whining.

"Fine, fine. You should, uh, you should read the 'Bugs' book. That case was… great." He said with a grin, pulling the book out of his bag and tossing to her before he walked over and stomped on the bag.

Elena gagged at the crunching noise and threw the book back at him, hitting his head as he laughed at her fear.

"You're not funny!" she hissed, gingerly getting off of the chair.

When she looked around the room, she shook her head.

"This place is making me feel disgusting. I'm going to take a shower." She said, shuddering.

She turned to walk into the bathroom, taking her bag with her. When she ripped the curtain aside, she saw a spider go running into the drain as another cockroach came scuttling out of the curtain.

"Nope!" Sam heard her shout from the bathroom.

He looked up with amusement as she came stomping out, her bag clutched in her hands.

"Nope! No! No! No! I can't fucking do it! No!" Elena ranted, shaking her head as she walked to the door and yanked it open, walking outside as she shivered.

When she got outside the door, she slammed it shut and looked around. The Impala was already gone but Dean couldn't have gone far to park it. She stepped forward at the same time as she heard a door slam shut across the courtyard. She turned her head to see a scantily clad woman standing on the sidewalk counting a stack of money before smiling and shoving it into her purse.

"I can't stay in this damn motel!" she said to no one in particular.

She looked up at the motel sign and she felt the blood drain from her face. Instead of saying 'Toreador' as it should have, it said 'red'.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, running forward as she remembered that Dean got hit by a van next.

When she heard the screeching of tires and a slam from a few streets over, she broke out into a run. When she caught sight of a tan van sitting in the middle of the road with a woman and her daughter kneeling over a man who was lying in the middle of the road, her heart stuttered.

"Dean!" she cried, darting forward and running into the road without a second thought.

* * *

Sam sighed as he opened the door to reveal Chuck standing there.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked, looking unsure.

"Yeah." Sam nodded, opening the door wider for Chuck to come in.

"Thanks for coming." He said after shutting the door.

"Ah, sure." Chuck nodded, turning around.

"Um... I was just wondering how much you know. About me." Sam said, sounding vague.

"What do you mean?"

"Have you seen visions of me when I'm not with Dean?" he asked.

"Oh... you want to know if I know about the demon blood." Chuck nodded.

"You didn't tell Dean." Sam said, panicking for a moment.

"I didn't even write it into the books. I was afraid it would make you look unsympathetic." The writer shrugged.

"Unsympathetic?" he questioned.

"Yeah, come on, Sam. I mean, sucking blood? You got to know that's wrong." Chuck said, shaking his head.

"It scares the hell out of me. I mean, I feel it inside of me. I... I wish to God I could stop." Sam said, sounding desperate.

"But you keep going back." he pointed out.

"What choice have I got? If it helps me kill Lilith and stop the apocalypse…" Sam trailed off.

"I thought that was Dean's job. That's what the angels say, right?" Chuck said.

"Dean's not... he's not Dean lately. Ever since he got out of hell." Sam said, shaking his head.

"So you got to carry the weight?"

"Well, he's looked out for me my whole life. I can't return the favor?" he said.

"Yeah, sure you can. I mean, if that's what this is." Chuck said, shrugging.

"What else would it be?" Sam questioned suspiciously.

"I don't know. Maybe the demon blood makes you feel stronger? More in control?" he suggsted.

"No. That's not true." Sam said, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, Sam. I know it's a terrible burden… feeling that it all rests on your shoulders."

"Does it? All rest on my shoulders?" Sam asked.

"That seems to be where the story's headed." Chuck replied.

"Am I strong enough to stop Lilith tonight?" Sam asked after a moment of silence.

"I don't know. I haven't seen that far yet."

* * *

"Do you know him?" the lady asked, looking at Elena with wide eyes as she fell to her knees beside Dean, who was unconscious..

Elena stared down at him without answering.

"Why does he have flower band-aids on his face?" she asked, pointing at them.

Then she noticed the little girl who was holding them with a slight pout at getting interrupted from playing doctor. Dean groaned and she looked down to see him opening his eyes.

"Stars." Dean said incoherently.

"What?" Elena asked, confused.

He raised his hand and pointed at the woman's earrings, which were long dangling stars.

"Stars." He mumbled, trying to pick his head up.

"I'm so sorry. I just didn't see you. Are you okay?" the woman asked.

Elena helped him sit up slowly, trying to sneakily heal him without the woman noticing. Luckily, he had no visible wounds. But there was a very good chance he had a concussion.

"And sorry about... you know." The woman said, looking warily at Elena and then Dean's cheek as she gestured to her daughter.

"My… my daughter's going through a doctor phase." She explained.

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked, looking confused.

"You're all better now." The little girl said with a smile.

Dean furrowed his brow and looked around. His face formed a devastated grimace as he caught sight of something.

"Oh, no..." he whispered, standing up slowly with Elena's help.

She turned to see the back window of the Impala busted out. Dean stumbled towards it, despite her protestations, and she caught sight of his furious face. When he caught sight of his reflection, he finally noticed the band-aids and peeled one off, looking at her with trepidation.

"I have a plastic tarp for that, if you need it. It's the least I can do." The woman said, smiling at them as she held out the clear plastic tarp.

Dean turned to her after taping it down on his car.

"We are going to see that damn psychic." He growled.

"As long as it gets me out of that STD and cockroach infested place. By the way, the sign of the hotel says red now. We haven't escaped anything." she said, climbing in the car with him.

* * *

Chuck finally entered the living room after they'd sat there for about fifteen minutes. Elena was massaging Dean's head when he walked in carrying a bottle of alcohol.

"Dean. Elena." Chuck said, not looking at all surprised by their presence.

"I take it you knew we'd be here." Dean said roughly, leaning forward with a glare.

"You look terrible." the writer commented.

"That's cause I just got hit by a minivan, Chuck." He snapped.

"Oh." Chuck sighed.

"That it? Every damn thing you write about me comes true; that's all you have to say is 'oh'?!" Dean growled, standing up as Elena remained sitting.

"Please don't yell at me." he said pleadingly.

"Why do I get feeling there's something that you're not telling us?"

"What wouldn't I be telling you?" Chuck said with a nervous chuckle, backing up.

Elena stood and followed Dean as he advanced on the poor man.

"How you know what you know, for starters!" Dean thundered, angry now.

"I don't know how I know, I just do!" Chuck said, scrambling away from him.

"That's not good enough." Dean snapped, shoving him against the wall.

"Dean!" Elena berated him, launching forward to pull him off of the writer.

"How the hell are you doing this?!" Dean shouted.

They heard the fluttering of wings at the same time.

"Dean, let him go!" Castiel commanded, his voice as loud as Dean's.

The hunter released the writer and slowly turned to face the angel.

"This man is to be protected." Cas said, pointing at Chuck.

"Why?" Elena asked.

"He's a Prophet of the Lord."

* * *

"You... you're Castiel... aren't you?" Chuck breathed as Elena and Dean turned to look at him.

"It's an honor to meet you, Chuck. I... admire your work." Cas said walking to a table and picking up one of the books before he began looking through it.

"Whoa, whoa, what? This guy, a prophet? Come on, he's… he's... he's practically a Penthouse Forum writer." Dean said, sounding skeptical as Chuck grabbed his alcohol and ran to the armchair, pouring himself a glass.

"Did you know about this?" Elena asked Chuck.

"I, uh, I might have dreamt about it." he said nervously before taking a gulp of the whiskey.

"And you didn't tell us?!" Dean demanded as Cas ignored them, steadily skimming the book.

"It was too preposterous. Not to mention arrogant. I mean, writing yourself into the story is one thing, but as a prophet? That's like M. Night-level douchiness." Chuck ranted.

He finishes this tirade and desperately gulps down the whisky.

"This is the guy who decides our fate?" Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"He isn't deciding anything. He's a mouthpiece… a conduit for the inspired word." Cas said, his eyes still on the pages.

"The word? The word of God? What, like the new new testament?" Dean questioned.

"One day, these books… they'll be known as the Winchester gospel." The angel said.

"You got to be kidding me." Elena, Dean, and Chuck all said at the same time.

"I am not... kidding you." Cas said, finally looking up with a furrowed brow, the words sounding foreign in his voice.

"If you'd all please excuse me one minute." Chuck said in a trembling voice, clutching the bottle to his chest as he disappeared up the stairs.

"Him? Really?" Dean said, looking at Cas with a 'what the hell' look.

"You should've seen Luke." Cas said, placing the book on a table.

Dean scoffed and shook his head, walking past the angel.

"Why'd he get tapped?" he demanded.

"I don't know how prophets are chosen. The order comes from high up on the celestial chain of command." Cas answered, turning to face him.

"How high?" Elena questioned.

"Very."

"Well, whatever. How do we get around this?" Dean asked, looking back at him.

"Around what?" Cas asked.

"The Sam-Lilith love connection. How do we stop it from happening?"

"What the prophet has written can't be unwritten. As he has seen it, so it shall come to pass." Castiel said.

* * *

"Come on. We're getting out of here." Dean said as him and Elena walked into the motel room.

Elena stood at the door, unwilling to go any further into the room as Dean collected his bag.

"What? Where?" Sam asked, looking up from the television that was, luckily, not playing porn.

"Anywhere, okay? Out of this motel, out of this town. I don't care if we got to swim, we are getting out." Dean said, stopping and looking around with a confused look.

"Dude, where are all the hex bags?" he demanded.

"I burned them." Sam said, readying himself for a fight.

"You what?" Dean said through gritted teeth.

"Look, if Lilith is coming, which is a big 'if'…" Sam began.

"No, no, no. It's more than an 'if'. Chuck is not a psychic. He's a prophet." Elena broke in, staring at Sam with disbelief.

It was as if he was a total different person from the man that she met. She couldn't help but wonder what else happened because it couldn't have merely been Ruby's presence, could it? Something else was going on.

"What?" Sam said, wide-eyed as he stared between them.

"Cas showed up, and apparently Chuck is writing the gospel of us." Dean said, glaring around the room.

"Okay." The younger brother said.

"Okay. Let's get the hell out of here." Dean said, turning towards the door.

"No." Sam said, stopping him in his tracks and making him turn around.

"Lilith is gonna slaughter you." Dean said.

"Maybe she will, maybe she won't." Sam shrugged.

"So what? You think you can take her?"

"Only one way to find out, Dean, and I say bring her on." Sam said simply.

"Sam..." Dean began.

"You think I'll do it, don't you? You think I'll go dark side." Sam demanded, looking down at his lap.

"Yes! Okay? Yes. The way you've been acting lately? The things you've been doing?" Dean said, his voice raising.

Sam's head snapped up, startled. His eyes were wide with fear and Elena was certain that something was going on because he knew that she was bound to tell Dean everything that she'd witnessed. Why was he surprised by Dean knowing about that? The answer was, he wasn't surprised… about that. There was something else, another dirty secret that he was keeping from both of them. Elena didn't reveal this to Dean because, if she did, Sam would most likely shut down.

"Oh, I know. How you ripped Alastair apart like it was nothing, like you were swatting a fly. Cas and Elena told me, okay?" Dean snapped.

"What else did Cas tell you?" Sam asked, jumping up.

"Nothing I don't already know. That you've been using your psychic crap, and you've been getting stronger. We just don't know why, and we don't know how."

"It's not what you think." Sam said pleadingly.

"Then what is it, Sam? 'Cause I'm at a total loss." Dean said, throwing his hands up before turning to head for the door again.

"Are you coming or not?" he growled.

"No." Sam said.

Elena stopped Dean and they both turned back to Sam. Dean glared at his brother before throwing his bad down into a chair and grabbing Elena's hand, pulling her out of the room.

* * *

Elena watched as Dean dropped coins into the vending machine, half expecting an empty can to roll out of the dusty machine. Dean sighed and backed away, looking at her.

"Well, I feel stupid doing this. But... I am fresh out of options. So please. I need some help. I'm praying, okay? Come on. Please." He said, closing his eyes.

Elena smiled tenderly at him. Even when he was pissed at his brother, seeing red at his actions, he was praying in order to help him.

"Prayer is a sign of faith. This is a good thing, Dean." Cas said walking towards them once he appeared.

"So does that mean you'll help us?" Dean asked, turning to the angel.

"I'm not sure what I can do." He said, uncertain of what Dean wanted.

"Drag Sam out of here, now. Before Lilith shows up." Dean said pleadingly.

"It's a prophecy. I can't interfere." Cas said, shaking his head.

"You have tested me and thrown me every which way. And I have never asked for anything. Not a damn thing. I tortured for you, Cas, something I never wanted to do again. But now I'm asking. I need your help. Please." Dean said.

"What you're asking, it's... not within my power to do." Cas said regrettably

"Why? 'Cause it's 'divine prophecy'?" Dean growled, turning to kick his shoe against the soda machine.

"Yes." The angel sighed.

"So, what… we're just supposed to sit around and, and wait for it to happen?" Elena asked, pushing off of the wall to look at Cas.

"I'm sorry." He sighed, looking frustrated.

Elena bit her lip and looked down. It was hard to wrap her head around the other angels, like Zachariah, when the angel they dealt with the most was Cas. He was the most human of all of them and Elena had to wonder how that happened since, from he what he told them, they were the first humans he'd really interacted with. It was easy to forget sometimes that he was an extremely powerful heavenly being. But then sometimes, his confusion at the way humans thought and acted was almost laughable and it became clear that he was something else.

"Screw you. You and your mission. Your God. If you don't help me now, then when the time comes and you need me... don't bother knocking." Dean snapped, brushing past Castiel to walk away.

"Dean. Dean!" Cas said, turning to stop him.

"What?!" Dean yelled, turning to glare at him.

"You must understand why I can't intercede. Prophets are very special. They're protected." Cas said, a gleam in his eye that made Elena turn his words over in her mind.

"I get that." Dean said, confused.

"If anything threatens a prophet, anything at all, an archangel will appear to destroy that threat. Archangels are fierce. They're absolute. They're heaven's most terrifying weapon."

Dean stared at Cas, shrugging. But Elena suddenly understood. Her eyes widened slightly.

"And these archangels, they're tied to prophets?" she asked, a slow smile spreading on her face.

"Yes." Castiel said, looking satisfied at her sudden change in emotions.

She grinned at him, not missing the corners of his mouth twitching as well. She turned to Dean and saw the realization dawn in his eyes when he realized what they were saying.

"So if a prophet was in the same room as a demon…" Dean trailed off as he walked forward to stand with them again.

"Then the most fearsome wrath of heaven would rain down on that demon. Just so you understand... why I can't help." Cas said, a hint of amusement in his voice as he looked up at the sky.

Dean and Elena exchanged a hopeful glance before looking back at the angel.

"Thanks, Cas." Elena said, smiling at him.

"Yeah, uh… thanks." Dean nodded.

"Good luck." The angel said, nodding at them before disappearing once again.

* * *

When they walked into his house without knocking, Chuck was sprawled out onto the couch. He looked up at them with wide eyes.

"What are you doing here? I didn't write this." he said, scrambling up to a sitting position.

"Come on. I need you to come with me." Dean said, grabbing his shirt by the scruff and pulling him up to a standing position.

"Hey, be gentle with the prophet." Elena berated him, smiling.

Dean grinned back and she knew that both of them were feeling a burst of adrenaline at the idea that they were actually going to stop a prophecy that was 'impossible' to stop.

"What? Where?" Chuck asked, wide-eyed.

"To the motel where Sam is." Dean said as they walked out of the house.

"That's where Lilith is." The writer said, panicking.

"Yeah, exactly. We need you to stop her." Elena said as he was thrown into the passenger seat.

"Are you insane? Lilith? I know what she's capable of, Dean. I wrote her." Chuck said as they climbed in as well and Dean started the car.

"All right, listen to me. You have an archangel tethered to you, okay? All you got to do is show up and boom! Lilith gets smoked." Dean said, looking at Chuck before he pulled away from the curb.

"But I… I haven't seen that yet. Th… the story…" he stammered.

"Chuck, you're the only shot that I've got left." Dean said pleadingly.

"But... I'm just a writer." Chuck whimpered.

"This isn't a story anymore, man. This is real! And you're in it! Now, I need you to get off your ass and fight. Come on, Chuck." Dean said, his voice raised a bit.

"No friggin' way." Chuck said, shaking his head.

"Okay, well, then, how about this… I've got a gun in my pocket, and if you don't come with me, I'll blow your brains out." Dean said, gesturing to his waistband as Elena sighed.

Threatening to shoot him in the head was not being gentle with the prophet.

"I thought you said I was protected by an archangel." Chuck said questioningly.

"Well, interesting exercise. Let's see who the quicker draw is." Dean shrugged.

* * *

Sam approached the door to the motel room slowly after he heard a knock on it. When he opened it, there was nothing out there. He tensed up and slowly closed the door before turning to face the room. A blonde woman stood there smirking.

"Hello, Sam." Lilith said, cocking her head to the side.

"I've been waiting for you." he informed her.

Her smirk became more pronounced as her eyes turned white.

"Where's the knife, Sam?" she asked, backing away from him and walking towards the bed.

"On the nightstand. By the bed." He said, pointing at the piece of furniture.

She began walking toward the bed but stopped, stooping down to life the rug. She turned towards him once she caught sight of the Devil's Trap beneath it. Her eyes rolled and she bent down and touched it with her finger, causing it to burn away.

"You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that." Lilith said, standing to face him.

"How 'bout this?" Sam asked, reaching out a hand with concentration.

A wind filled the room and blew her hair back but nothing else happened.

"You're strong. But you're not that strong. Not yet." Lilith said with a grin.

"So why don't you throw me around then?" Sam asked.

"Because I can't, and you know it. You're immune to my charms. Seems we're at a stalemate." She shrugged, walking to the bed and sitting on the edge.

"Why are you here?"

"To talk."

"Yeah, well, I'm not interested." Sam scoffed.

"Hmm... even if I'm offering to stand down? From the seals... the apocalypse... all of it?" Lilith suggested, smiling when he stared at her.

"You expect me to believe that?" he questioned.

"Honestly? No. You were always the smart one. But it's the truth. You can end it, Sam. Right here, right now. I'll stop breaking seals, Lucifer keeps rotting in his cage. All you have to do is agree to my terms." She said, leaning back on her hands.

"Why would you back down? Why now?" Sam demanded.

"Turns out, I don't survive this war. Killed off, right before the good part starts." Lilith informed him.

A few moments of silence reigned in the room before Sam sighed.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"For it to go back to the way it was. Before I had angels to deal with 24/7. The good old days, when it was all baby blood all the time." she said, smirking.

"And what do you want in return?" Sam asked.

"Your head on a stick. Dean's, too. And that annoying girlfriend of your brother's. Call it a consolation prize. So what do you say, Sam? Self-sacrifice is the Winchester way, isn't it?" Lilith asked.

"You really think I'm stupid enough to fall for this?" Sam said, shaking his head.

"I make a deal, I have to follow through. Those are the rules, and you know it. Are you really so arrogant that you would put your life before the lives of six billion innocent people? Maybe it's all that demon blood pumping through your pipes. Man after my own heart." Lilith said mockingly, placing her hand over her chest.

"You think I'm like you? I am nothing like you." Sam snapped.

"Then prove it. Going once." She said, holding up one finger.

"Going twice." Two fingers.

"Fine." Sam said, stopping her counting.

"Swell. By the way, a contract with me will take more than a kiss." She said, laying back and gesturing to the spot next to her.

"A lot more. Don't worry. The dental hygienist in here? She wants it bad." Lilith said, patting the bed.

Sam approached slowly and, when he got to her, she ran a hand up his leg as her eyes turned white once again. Then she reached up and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him down on top of her. As their lips neared each other, Sam pulled the knife out of his belt and attempted to stab her. She was ready for that, countering his attack by flipping them over and grabbing the knife, throwing it across the room. She glared down at Sam but, before she could attack, the door slammed open and Dean, Elena, and Chuck ran in.

"I am the prophet Chuck!" the writer announced dramatically.

"You've got to be joking." Lilith said, rolling her eyes as she stood and approached Chuck.

The room began to tremble and Elena looked up at the ceiling to see the wood rattling.

"Oh, this is no joke." Dean said as a great white light poured through the windows.

"You see, Chuck here's got an archangel on his shoulder. You've got about 10 seconds before this room is full of wrath and you're a piece of charcoal. You sure you want to tangle with that?" Dean said, smirking at the demon.

Lilith glared at them, her eyes turning to Elena.

"When I see you again, Dean Winchester, I'm gonna torture your little girl right in front of you. I'm gonna make her feel so much pain that her screams will cause you pain." She threatened, making Elena's skin crawl.

But Elena wasn't quite ready to back down.

"Good luck with that. I've heard you've had it out for me for a while. Do you even know what I am?" Elena said, smirking back at her.

Lilith simply stared.

"I'm a guardian. And, well last time I checked, a guardian had a little protector of her own. Oh… wait… did I say little? Chuck here isn't the only one with an archangel on his shoulder." Elena shrugged.

Then her smirk disappeared and she glared at the demon.

"I would run… now." She encouraged her.

Lilith turned to give Sam one last look before pouring out of her screaming vessel's mouth.

* * *

"So a deal, huh?" Dean asked as they drove down the highway, the tarp still flapping in the breeze.

"That's what she said." Sam nodded, looking down at the demon-killing knife in his hand.

"To call the whole thing off… angels, seals, Lucifer rising, the whole nine?"

"That was the gist of it."

"Huh." Dean said, looking out the window.

"What?" Sam asked, looking over at him.

"You didn't think once about taking it?" Dean asked, looking back.

"You kidding me? Dude, you spent all day trying to talk me off the Lilith track." Sam scoffed.

"I'm just saying..." Dean trailed off.

"She would have found some way to weasel out of it. And all it would have cost us was our lives." Sam sighed, looking out the window.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Anyway, that's not the point." He said.

"What's the point?" Dean asked.

"The point is, she's scared. I could see it. Lilith is running." Sam said, looking over at Dean.

"Running from what?" Elena asked, leaning forward.

"Don't know. But she was telling the truth about one thing." Sam said, looking down at his hands again.

"What's that?" Dean questioned.

"She's not gonna survive the apocalypse. I'll make sure of that." he said, looking out the window.

Elena's eyes narrowed and she sat back, looking out the window as well. Sam was hiding something. Maybe Dean didn't realize it. Maybe Cas didn't even know, but she did. And she was determined to figure it out. Not for Dean, not for herself. But for Sam. Because whatever shit he got himself into, he was going to need a hell of a lot of help getting himself out of it. And, as she was his guardian, it was up to her to help him whether he wanted it or not.

* * *

Chuck sat up quickly, his body reacting violently to the dream he just had.

"Did you see it?" a man said by the window, turning to face him.

"Who are you?" Chuck asked, really tired of visitors just showing up in his home.

"I'm Zachariah. You may know me from your work." The angel said, walking forward.

"What do you want?" the prophet questioned.

"Did you see it?" Zachariah asked again.

Chuck nodded slowly, looking fearful.

"Is it true? Is all of that... really going to happen?" he asked.

"Have you been wrong so far?" Zachariah shrugged, smirking.

Chuck stood, walking for the door.

"I've got to warn Sam and Dean and Elena." he said.

"I wouldn't advise it. People shouldn't know too much about their own destiny. You try... and I'll stop you." Zachariah promised him.

Chuck stopped and turned to look at the angel before heading in a different direction.

"Where are you going now?" Zachariah sighed.

"To go kill myself." The man said, sounding miserable.

"Don't be melodramatic, Chuck. We'd only bring you back to life." he chuckled.

"What am I supposed to do?" Chuck demanded, turning to face him with confusion on his face.

"What you always do. Write." Zachariah shrugged before smiling and disappearing.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it! Next chapter is the Adam Milligan chapter. REVIEW PLEASE! Elena's outfits are on my profile.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, TheElegantFaerie, DrawingMyHeartOut, RHatch89, xxPaige23xx, Dark Alana, Nyssandria, LineChokor, neontreeslover, slayerdiaries, and chiwi for reviewing and to everyone who is faithfully reading! I love all of you!**

**To Dark-Supernatural-Angel, don't forget that Gabriel is Elena's guardian angel thing. He's still off doing trickster-y things. But don't worry; he'll be there when Elena needs him the most.**

**A few things:**

**1. Elena is going to be separated from the boys for some of this chapter. I tried writing her completely into the Adam storyline and I discovered that it was really, really not going well. Writing is hard, guys. So she's off on her own (but then again not really on her own) for some of the time doing her own investigating.**

**2. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**3. I'm not sure if Elena is badass or too OOC in this chapter. Let me know if I did badly.**

* * *

"Hey. How'd you sleep?" Sam asked as Elena and Dean finally opened their eyes.

"No." Elena said stubbornly, burying her face in Dean's chest.

He chuckled at her refusal to get up as he sat up, pulling her with him. She let out a whine and pouted at him through the curtain of her hair.

"Why?" she whimpered.

"Because it's eleven o'clock." Sam said, walking into the bathroom to grab his bathroom bag.

Elena glared at him and Dean bursted out laughing when she showed the younger Winchester her middle finger.

"Come on." He said, pulling her out of bed and into the bathroom.

Elena immediately sat on the counter, leaning her head against the wall and closing her eyes.

"Elena, I'm starving. Let's get ready so we can get food." Dean said pleadingly.

She looked up at him and sighed.

"I'm gonna get in the shower." She nodded as her words slurred together in her sleepy voice

She slid off of the counter and walked to the shower, turning the water on. As she put her foot inside the tub, Dean sighed and shook his head.

"You might want to take your clothes off first, unless you want them to get wet." He warned her, watching in the mirror as she stopped and turned to face him.

"That's a good idea." She agreed, pulling her shirt off.

He laughed and turned his attention to brushing his teeth. When he looked up, she was in the shower. A few minutes later, she climbed out with a towel wrapped around her, her eyes clearer and her face set in a frown.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Did I really flip Sam off?" she asked, furrowing her brow.

He nodded at her, smiling.

"I should really work on my morning anger issues." She sighed, turning to walk out of the room and grab clothes for herself.

Dean heard her apologize to Sam before she walked back into the bathroom.

"Hey." He said, turning her around once she had her dress pulled on.

"What?" she questioned, looking up at him as his arm encircled her waist.

"Good morning." He grinned, leaning in to kiss her softly.

"Mmm… I hate mornings." She grumbled, pulling her wet hair back over her shoulders.

"I know, darlin'. I know." He said, patting her head before turning walk out of the bathroom.

* * *

As they approached the car, they heard a ringing noise. Dean patted his pockets as Elena dug around in her purse and Sam looked around with a confused look. Dean went around to the trunk as Elena leaned into the passenger seat and opened the glove compartment where the ringing was coming from. She pulled a black flip phone out and stared at it, confused.

"Isn't that Dad's phone?" Sam said, looking at it with confusion.

They gestured for her to answer as they continued to put stuff in the trunk. She opened it hesitantly and pressed talk.

"Hello?" she asked hesitantly, unsure of what to say.

"Uh, can I talk to John?" a man on the other end asked, sounding as confused as she was.

Elena looked up at Sam and Dean for help.

"He can't come to the phone. Can I help you?" She asked.

"No no no… I really… I need to talk to John. This is Adam Milligan. He knows me." the man said.

"Hold on for a second." She said, putting her hand over the phone.

"It's a guy named Adam Milligan, he wants to talk to your dad." She whispered so that he wouldn't hear her.

"Well, tell him that he's dead." Dean said simply.

"I don't want to deliver that kinda news." She said, frowning.

"Well, we're his sons, so we don't really want to say it out loud." Dean said, looking down at his hands.

"You just said it out loud!" Elena hissed, but knew that she already felt sorry for him so she had to do it.

"I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you… but John died more than two years ago." she said softly, trying to sound as sympathetic as she could.

There was a shocked silence for a moment and she could have sworn she heard a soft sob.

"Who is this?" she asked, feeling like something was out of place in this situation.

"I'm his son." The man said, causing Elena's eyes to widen and she pulled the phone away from her ear and held it out towards Dean and Sam.

"I think one of you are gonna want to talk to him." she said simply.

* * *

"Dean, look, best I can tell, Adam Milligan is real." Sam said as they climbed out of the car at a restaurant in Windom, Minnesota, where they agreed to meet Adam.

Dean walked around the car as he sifted through the weapons and Sam read off the information that he gathered about their supposed half-brother. Elena bit her lip and pulled her jacket closer around her body to protect it from the biting cold air.

"Um, born September twenty-ninth, 1990 to Kate Milligan. No father listed on the birth certificate. He's an Eagle Scout."

Dean pulled out Ruby's knife and a gun, sticking the gun in his waistband and the knife in the pocket in his jacket.

"Graduated from high school with honors and currently goes to the University of Wisconsin… biology major, pre-med." Sam read off.

Dean reached out and closed the weapons box.

"Dean? You listening?" Sam asked as Elena watched the older brother with a worried expression.

"This is a trap." He said, slamming the trunk closed before turning to head into the diner.

He'd been like this ever since the phone call. Pissed off but unwilling to admit it. Elena hated to do it, but she had to put off her extensive observation of Sam (it sounded creepy but it was necessary) to make sure that Dean wouldn't shoot Adam Milligan the second he walked through the door. The bell to the restaurant rang as they walked in. Elena watched as the two brothers scanned the restaurant before Dean chose an empty table in the corner. He sat on one side with Elena as Sam sat on the other side. Sam pulled out John's journal as well as the folder with information on Adam.

"Dean, I'm telling you, the kid checks out." Sam said.

"Great, so he's an actual person on the planet Earth. Sucks he's got a demon in him." he said, looking up at the waitress, Denise as her nametag said, approached the table with menus and glasses of water for them.

"Hi. Welcome to Cousin Oliver's." she said.

"Thanks." Sam said politely, smiling up at her.

"Can I…" she began.

"We're actually waiting on somebody." Dean interrupted her.

Denise, annoyed by Dean's abruptness, slapped down a menu in front of each of them before turning to walk off.

"Thank you…" Elena called, turning to stare at Dean with wide eyes.

He usually wasn't a jerk to the people who could bring him food so she knew that there was something just waiting to burst out of him. She really hoped that they weren't in public when it happened. Dean picked up his glass and poured the water into the potted plant behind them.

"What are you…" Sam began.

Dean placed the glass between his knees and pulled out a flask, unscrewing the top.

"Holy water?" Sam questioned.

"Yup." He replied, pouring the water into the glass.

"One sip of Jesus juice, this evil bitch is gonna be in a world of hurt." He said, placing the glass in front of the fourth place at the table.

Then he pulled out a felt-wrapped package and undid it.

"And what if he's not possessed?" Elena asked.

"Then he is a shapeshifter." Dean said, placing the silver cultury at the place and removing the silverware that was already there, dropping it on the floor.

"Hence the silver." Sam said.

Sam reached out to set John's journal in the middle of the table.

"Look, either way, this thing is gonna bleed. I mean, using Dad as bait? That's the last mistake of its short, pitiful life." Dean snapped and Elena knew that was it.

Her and Sam exchanged guarded looks and Dean noticed their apprehension.

"What?" he asked.

Sam looked away as Elena looked down at her hands.

"What?" Dean demanded again.

"Dean...listen. There's an entry in Dad's journal." Sam said, flipping through the worn pages. "From January of 1990, saying he's headed to Minnesota to check out a case. That's, roughly, oh, about nine months before the kid was born."

"Coincidence." Dean scoffed.

"Coincidence. Next two pages of the journal… torn out." Sam said, gesturing to the journal.

"You're not actually buying this, are you?" Dean said, staring at his brother dubiously.

"Look, man, I don't want to believe it either, I'm just saying it's possible." He said, picking up the journal as he closed it. "I mean, Dad would be gone for weeks at a time, and he wasn't exactly a monk."

Elena watched, remaining silent, as Sam put it away. She never liked to get involved when Dean and Sam talked about their father or their family in general. It was something that, no matter how many facts she knew, she would never actually know how to talk to them about it just like they couldn't understand her family because they weren't there. It didn't keep her from offering her comfort them if they ever needed it, but she felt uncomfortable with getting in the middle of their conversation.

"I mean, a hunter rolls into town, kills a monster, saves the girl...sometimes the girl's grateful." Sam shrugged.

Elena flushed and looked down at her hands.

"Well, now I'm thinking about Dad sex. Stop talking." Dean said, grimacing.

"Maybe he slipped one past the goalie." Sam shrugged.

Elena couldn't hold back her smile as Dean recoiled in horror.

"Dude!" he complained.

At that moment, the door chimed and they all looked towards it to see a young man with pale skin and blonde hair enter.

"Adam?" Sam asked, raising a hand.

The man looked over and nodded before walking to them.

"You Sam?" he asked.

"Yeah. Uh, this is Dean and Elena." he said, gesturing to them.

"Hey." Adam nodded, setting his backpack on the floor next to him as he sat down.

"So, um...how did you know my dad?" he asked, looking up at them.

Elena felt Dean flinch next to her and put her hand on his knee, rubbing it comfortingly.

"Uh, we worked together." Sam said.

"How did he die?" he asked, sounding a little confused.

"On the job." Sam nodded solemnly.

"He was a mechanic, right?" Adam asked.

"A car fell on him." Dean finally spoke up, staring at Adam with a less than friendly face.

"Hey, Adam. How you doing?" Denise asked, putting a glass of water in front of him.

Dean leaned forward and snatched it up as Sam frowned.

"Oh, I'll take that. I am very thirsty." He said, taking a sip.

Denise eyed him, obviously displeased at his behavior.

"The usual, Adam?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks, Denise." Adam said, looking at Dean strangely as he handed her his menu.

As the waitress left, Adam picked up the holy water glass to take a drink. Elena sat back as Dean and Sam watched carefully as he drank. Nothing happened and Dean sighed, leaning back again.

"So, uh, when's the last time you saw John?" Sam asked.

"I don't even know. It's... a couple years." Adam sighed.

Elena felt Dean shift and looked down to see him pulling his gun out to aim it at the young man. She reached out her hand and covered it with hers. Dean looked over at her and she shook her head subtly, telling him to wait before he did anything. He nodded slightly but didn't make a move to put the gun away.

"Why did you decide to call him now?" Sam questioned.

"I didn't know who else to call. He's the only family I got." Adam said sadly.

Sam stared at him.

My mom's missing." He admitted, his voice catching slightly.

Sam instantly looked at Elena for help.

"What?" she mouthed.

He cocked his head to Adam as if to say 'you deal with the emotions'.

She glared at him and turned back to Adam.

"I'm really sorry. How long as she been missing?" she asked sympathetically.

"It's tragic, really. But if you're John's kid, how come we've never heard of you?" Dean asked, interrupting the moment as he asked the question bluntly.

Elena shook her head at his lack of tact. If Adam did turn out to be human, he would owe him a hell of an apology, not that he would ever actually apologize.

"Cause John and me didn't really know each other. Not until a few years ago, anyway." Adam said, not put off by Dean's attitude.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"My mom never talked about him. I knew some stuff." He answered.

"What kind of stuff?" Dean asked instantly.

"My mom's a nurse, and Dad came into the ER, pretty torn up. Hunting accident or something. And I knew his name. John Winchester. That's about it. We're not exactly a nuclear family." Adam explained.

"Yeah, well, who is these days?" Sam shrugged, smiling at Elena.

She smiled back and knew what he was thinking. They, along with Bobby, were a family. It made her happy that he still felt that way and it told her that Sam was still Sam no matter what. But that still didn't change anything.

"So, when did you, uh, when did you finally meet him?" Dean asked.

"When I was twelve. My mom had one of his old numbers, and…" Adam said.

Elena felt Dean's hand tighten on the gun and she stroked her thumb over his scarred knuckles softly, trying to relax him.

"… and after I begged her… God, 24/7… she finally called him. God, when John heard he had a son, he raced to town. I mean, he dropped everything. He drove all night." Adam said, smiling fondly as hurt flashed in both brothers' eyes.

Denise approached the table and put a plate down in front of Adam.

"There you go." she said, smiling at him.

"Thanks." Adam nodded before turning his attention back to them.

"Well, that's heartwarming." Dean said, sounding angrier.

"You mind?" Adam asked, gesturing to his food.

"Please, dig in." Dean shrugged.

Adam slid the napkin out from underneath the silverware without touching it, spreading it in his lap. Dean stared at him suspiciously and Elena heard the faint clicking that indicated the gun was cocked.

"He would swing by once a year or so." he said, picking up the knife and fork.

Nothing happened and Elena looked up at Dean to see him glance away. He uncocked the gun and she watched as he put it away, folding his hands on the table.

"You know, called when he could. But still..." Adam trailed off.

"He taught me poker and pool and even bought me my first beer when I was fifteen. And, uh...he showed me how to drive. Dad, he had this beautiful 'sixty-seven Impala…"

"Oh, this is crap. You know what, you're lying." Dean finally snapped, glaring at him as Sam and Elena sighed at the same time.

They knew it was coming and they were actually surprised that Dean lasted as long as he did.

"No, I'm not." Adam said defensively, surprised by Dean's outburst.

"Uh, yeah, you are." Dean said, his voice tight with fury.

"I'm sorry, but who the hell are you to call me a liar?" Adam demanded, putting down his cutlery.

"We're John Winchester's sons, that's who." Dean said, gesturing to himself and Sam. "We are his sons."

Adam glanced between them several times, his eyes wide with shock.

"I've got brothers?" he asked, the hope in his voice making Elena sad for this young man.

"No, you don't have brothers. Look, man, I don't know if you're a hunter or what kind of game you're playing here." Dean scoffed.

"I have never been hunting in my life." Adam said, confused at Dean's words.

"Whatever. I'm out of here. Come on." he said, standing up and moving to leave.

"I can prove it." Adam said, catching Dean's attention and making him stop in his tracks.

* * *

"You sure you want to do this?" Dean asked.

"You are dealing with family stuff. I don't want to get in the way of that. If you're going to go looking for any monsters, I'll come just to make sure you're safe. But this is something that you need to deal with, Dean. There's a lot of shit going on in your head and you need to sort through it with Adam and Sam. I don't want you to be distracted or thinking about me while you're doing that. If you need to talk, of course I'll be here. But Adam needs to have time with just the two of you just like you two need to have time with just him." Elena said, walking into the motel room.

"But… I like having you around." Dean argued, placing their bags on the bed.

"I know, but I think you need this." she said, turning and placing her arms around his neck.

He sighed and let his head fall to her shoulder.

"I just can't believe that Dad had another kid… all that time… and never mentioned a thing about it." he mumbled.

"You are talking to the queen of family surprises. Found out I was adopted from my vampire ex-boyfriend, remember?" she reminded him.

"Yeah, and your uncle was your father." He nodded.

"And my mother was a psycho vampire whose husband was dating my aunt. If you want to look at a soap opera family, look no further than mine." She said, grinning up at him.

He smiled back and put his forehead against the top of her head.

"I'll be back soon, okay?" he said.

"I'll be here… being bored." She said, lifting her head to kiss him.

* * *

Dean and Sam walked back and forth in front of the table of pictures, Dean's eyes narrowed.

"He took you to a baseball game?" he demanded.

"Yeah, when I turned fourteen. Dad was around for a few of my birthdays." Adam nodded.

Sam opened to a page in John's journal and looked over it.

"September 29, 2004. One word. 'Minnesota.'" He said, looking up at Dean.

"He took you to a freakin' baseball game?" Dean repeated, still stuck back on the picture.

"Yeah. Why? What'd Dad do with you on your birthday?" Adam asked, taking the picture back.

Dean simply frowned and Adam looked away, sensing that he wasn't going to get an answer.

"Adam, you said you called Dad because your mom was missing." Sam brought up.

"Yeah." He nodded, looking up at Sam.

"How long has she been gone?"

"Three days." Adam said.

"Who was the last person to see her?" Dean asked, walking to a chair and sitting down.

"Mr. Abbinanti, our neighbor. He saw her come home Tuesday night, but she never showed up to work on Wednesday." He said, sitting with Dean.

"Did you call the police?" Sam asked.

"Mom's supervisor at the hospital did. And then I drove down here as fast as I could." Adam explained, pausing as he looked down at his hands. "I should have been here."

"What'd the, uh, what'd the cops say?" Dean asked.

"That they, uh, they searched the house. They didn't find anything." Adam said, looking up at them again. "She wouldn't leave without telling anybody. It's like she just dropped off the face of the earth, you know?"

* * *

Elena sighed as she paced the hotel room. Her phone finally rang and she quickly answered it.

"Hey, Chuck." She said.

"Hi. What's going on?" Chuck asked, sounding nervous.

"Nothing much, just on another hunt… but I'm guessing you already knew that." she said.

"Erm… yeah." He said, sounding unsure.

"I just… I need to ask you something." She said, feeling awkward and guilty.

"Yeah? What's… uh… how can I help?" he asked, his shifty behavior making her suspicious.

"Have you seen anything… weird… to do with Sam?" she asked.

"Wh… what do you mean?" Chuck stammered.

"Just… well I feel like he's hiding something… big." She admitted.

"N-no. I haven't… um Elena I have to go. I'm sorry." He said, the dial tone sounding in her ear almost as soon as he finished saying 'sorry'.

Elena stared down at the phone and narrowed her eyes. Chuck was keeping something from her. And if he was that nervous about it, that meant someone told him to do so. The only other beings that the prophet should have been interacting with was angels.

"Son of a… Cas?" she said hopefully.

She whirled around when he appeared.

"What is going on with Sam?" she demanded.

"You know everything that I know, Elena." he said, holding his hands up in surrender as her eyes narrowed to slits.

"You are an angel! You have to know something! Like why Chuck just hung up on me when I asked him!" she said, holding up her phone.

"I do not see everything and I am not told everything." Cas reminded her.

"Yeah, I know. You have superiors and all that. Well you can tell Zachariah to kiss my ass!" she snapped, throwing herself into a sitting position on the bed with a huff.

"I cannot see a situation in which Zachariah would take that very well." Cas admitted, walking to sit beside her.

She sighed and managed a small smile that disappeared as quickly as it came.

"I'm worried about him, Cas. I can't help him… I can't protect him… if I don't know what's going on." she sighed, rubbing her forehead.

* * *

Adam watched as Dean shifted the dresser out, looking behind it and, shifted it back. His eyes lifted to see a picture of Kate Milligan with John and his jaw tightened.

"The, uh, nightstand was knocked over. Was there anything else?" he asked, turning back to Adam.

"Oh, not really. The sheriff said there's no sign of a break-in." the young man said.

Dean looked around the room, his face skeptical.

"What, you think the cops missed something?" Adam asked.

"Maybe. Yeah. They don't have my eyes." Dean nodded, walking forward.

"You're a mechanic." Adam pointed out.

"Yeah. That's right." Dean shrugged.

Adam hesitated before opening his mouth to speak. "Dean, what else can you tell me about Dad?" he asked, noticing the way that Dean flinched at the question.

"You knew him." He said, his voice low and rough.

"Not as well as you."

"Trust me, kid, you don't want to know." Dean scoffed as Sam appeared in the doorway with a bunch of papers.

"Give us a minute." He said, walking out with Sam.

"You talk to the cops?" he asked once they reached the kitchen.

"Yeah. Like Adam said, no leads on his mom." Sam said.

"Shocker there." Dean scoffed, leaning against the kitchen cabinets.

Sam appreciated the thought when Elena decided not to come with them but now he almost wished that she had. Dean's mood was getting more sour the longer he spent away from her and the more time he spent around their half-brother.

"But I did find this." he said, shifting through the papers until he found a newspaper article dated January 9, 1990.

"Um...here. In 1990, there were seventeen grave robberies in Windom." He said, handing it to Dean.

"You think that's why Dad came through here?" Dean asked.

"I'd say so. Check it out." Sam said, pointing at the photo accompanying the article.

Dean squinted at it and noticed that their father was in the background of the picture.

"All right, so he was hunting something. What?" he said.

"No idea. Those were the pages he threw out of the journal. But last month, the corpse snatching started up again. Three bodies from the local cemetery." Sam explained.

"So whatever he was after, he didn't kill it. It's back." Dean nodded.

"And, what, it's stepped up its game to fresh meat? I mean, Kate's missing, and, uh…" he trailed off, going to the next paper.

"So is a local bartender… a guy named Joe Barton." He said, handing the photo to Dean.

* * *

When Dean and Sam walked back into the bedroom, Adam was sitting on his mother's bed. He stood in the doorway and held up a photo.

"Hey, does your mom know Joe Barton?" he asked.

"Uh, I don't think so. Why?" Adam questioned, squinting at the picture.

Dean looked back at Sam and then at Adam. When his eyes fell to Adam's feet, he noticed something. He walked over and bent over, looking closer at them.

"What is it?" Adam asked.

"Watch out." He replied, flipping the edge of the comforter up onto the bed and straightening up.

"Give me a hand with the mattress." He instructed.

With Adam's help, he moved the mattress off of the bedframe. Underneath the bed was a vent large enough to fit a body through. Dean looked back at Sam and cocked his eyebrow. Sam immediately raised his hands aong with Dean. They pounded their fists on their open palms and Dean instantly chose scissors while Sam chose rock. Sam smirked and Dean threw his hands up out of frustration.

"Every time." he grumbled, putting his hands on his hips.

* * *

"Do you imagine that it is something to do with the demon Ruby?" Cas asked.

"There's no way that she's not involved." Elena sighed, looking over at him.

"Then maybe we should find her." he suggested.

She looked over at him with wide eyes.

"Find Ruby? Can you even do that?" she asked. **(A/N I can't remember for sure if angels can locate demons like they can humans but I'm going to off on the assumption that they can't)**

"I can try." He replied.

"Don't do it if it will put you in danger, Cas." She said quickly, her eyes pleading with him.

He nodded solemnly before disappearing.

* * *

"Why didn't I pick paper?" Dean grumbled as he slid into the vent.

His flashlight immediately shined on bloodstains on the walls. As he crawled further to the T-junction, he found more blood. Dean pulled his pistol out before moving any further. As he leaned around a corner, pointing it in front of him, he groaned when he saw a large amount of blood with bits of flesh and bone scattered around. This was not good.

* * *

Elena shot up when the doorknob rattled. Dean and Sam came walking in and her eyes widened. Cas could be back at any minute and they would want an explanation as to why he was going to show up.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Found blood in the vent at Adam's house. The police are there now so we are not." Dean explained, walking in and setting the weapons bag on the bed and sitting down.

"Oh… so his mom is…" she trailed off at their regretful faces.

Dean pulled out a shotgun and began cleaning it as Sam opened his laptop to do research. Neither of them wanted to talk. Elena bit her lip and sat back on the bed, her back ramrod straight and her fingers twisting together.

"You all right?" Dean asked.

"Hmm? Yeah, of course." She nodded, smiling at him, hoping that she was convincing.

"All right." he shrugged, turning back to the shotgun.

"I'm hungry and I saw a grocery store a few blocks down. You want anything?" she asked, standing up and grabbing her purse.

"Nah, I'm good." They said together.

"Here." Dean pulled his wallet out and handed her a credit card.

"Thanks." She smiled, leaning in and kissing him briefly before turning to walk out of the motel.

"Stay safe!" Dean called.

"I will!" she said back, waving over her shoulder.

* * *

A knock on the door interrupted the silence of the room that was only filled by the sound of Dean cleaning his gun. Sam walked to it hesitantly and peeked through the peephole. He sighed and nodded at Dean, who covered the shotgun with a cloth.

"Who the hell are you?" Adam demanded, entering as soon as Sam opened the door.

"Adam, hey." Sam said, closing the door behind him.

"Take it easy." Dean said, looking up at him casually.

"No, don't tell me to take it easy, okay? My house is a crime scene, my mom's probably dead, and you two—well, you tell me to call the cops, but you got to bail before they show? So, who are you really?" the young man demanded.

Silence filled the room and Adam glared between them.

"Cops didn't know where to look for my mom, Dean, but you did. And I heard you talking earlier… something about grave robberies." He said, looking at the bed next to Dean where the end of the shotgun was poking out from under the cloth.

"You're not mechanics. I just want to know what's going on." he said.

More silence as Dean and Sam exchanged looks.

"Please." Adam

"We're hunters." Sam finally said.

"Sammy!" Dean snapped.

"He deserves to know, Dean." Sam defended himself.

"What do you mean, hunters?" Adam asked, sounding confused as Dean shook his head out of frustration.

* * *

Elena bit her lip until it bled as she walked through the aisles of the grocery store. She was pushing a basket that had nothing in it. Basically, she was walking around until Cas appeared, hoping that he would show up there instead of at the hotel. When she reached the vegetable and fruit section, she saw his distinctive trenchcoat and dark messy hair standing by some of the fruit. She abandoned the basket and walked to him.

"Hey. Sorry about the change in location. Sam and Dean…"

"… arrived at the motel. I sensed that you were elsewhere. What exactly is the function of this strange looking thing?" he asked, gesturing the pineapples.

"Um… what?" she said, confused at what he meant.

"It looks… unappetizing. I can't imagine why it would be in a place that sells food." He said, turning to her with a furrowed brow.

"It's a pineapple." She said, smiling slightly at his cluelessness.

"This looks nothing like an apple." Cas said, shaking his head.

"It's a fruit, Cas. We don't think too much about their names." She said, shaking her head.

"How is it edible? It looks like it might harm a human if they tried to consume it."

She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, marveling over how much Cas reminded her of a small child and how many questions they both asked. Then she walked over to the refrigerated fruit and found a container of already chopped up pineapple, bringing it back to him and hoping that it ended the ridiculous conversation.

"We split the pineapple open. This is what it is on the inside." she explained, gesturing to the light yellow fruit.

The angel stared at it for a moment before looking up at her with his wide, imploring eyes.

"What does it taste like?" he asked and she couldn't help but smile again at his curiosity.

"It's kind of sweet… but tangy at the same time." she said, shrugging.

"May I try some?" he asked.

"Cas, what is going on with Ruby?" she said, putting the pineapple down and trying to get his attention on what mattered.

"Oh I found the demon. She is hiding in Michigan." He said, nodding.

"Great. So what now?" Elena asked.

"Well we can go get her I suppose." He said, looking up at her while putting his hands in his pockets.

"I just need to ask her a few questions. It won't take long."

Castiel nodded, reaching out to take her hand before they disappeared from the grocery store.

* * *

"Okay, so...basically, you're saying that every movie monster, every nightmare that I've ever had, that's all real?" Adam asked as he sat in a chair, looking confused and skeptical.

"Godzilla's just a movie." Dean assured him.

"We hunt them. So did Dad." Sam said, rolling his eyes at his older brother.

Adam nodded slowly. "Okay." He said, staring down at his hands.

"Okay? That's it?" Dean said, a little bit surprised.

"What am I supposed to say?" Adam replied, looking up at him.

"That we're liars, that we're crazy. Nobody just says okay." Dean said.

"Elena just said okay." Sam pointed out.

"Elena is different." Dean said.

"Well, you're my brothers. You're telling me the truth, right?" Adam asked, making the two Winchester pause, taking in his utter trust in them.

"Yeah." Dean said.

"Then I believe you. Now, what took my mom?" he asked.

"We're not sure. Something's in town stealing bodies, living and dead, but we don't know what." Sam sighed.

"There's a long list of freaks that fit the bill." Dean explained.

"You think maybe she might still be alive?" Adam asked, looking at the older brother.

Dean looked down and Adam turned to Sam, who looked down as well. Adam nodded, looking down as well.

"Oh. How can I help?" he asked.

"You can't." Dean said, shaking his head.

"This thing killed my mom. If you're hunting it, I want in." he argued.

"No." Dean said with an air of finality.

"Dean, look, maybe…" Sam trailed off.

"Maybe what?" he said, looking over at Sam.

"He lost his mother. Maybe we can understand what that feels like." Sam shrugged.

"Why do you think Dad never told us about this kid, Sam? Huh? Why do you think he ripped out the pages?" Dean said.

"Because…" Sam said, shaking his head as he couldn't come up with an answer.

"Because he was protecting him!" Dean said, his voice rising slightly.

"Dad's dead, Dean." Sam argued.

"That doesn't matter! He didn't want Adam to have our lives, okay? And we are gonna respect his wishes."

"Do I get a say in this?" Adam asked, frustrated with them talking about him like he wasn't there.

"No!" Dean and Sam at the same time before Dean headed for the door.

"Babysit the kid." He growled.

"Where are you going?" Sam demanded as he grabbed his jacket.

"I'm going out!" he shouted as he walked out the door and Sam sighed heavily.

"Is he always like that?" Adam asked.

Sam chuckled and shook his head. "Welcome to the family." He said.

Adam looked down and Sam reached for his gun.

"Here." He said, pulling the clip out and handing it to him. "I'm gonna teach you a few things."

Uh, Dean said…" Adam said.

"I know what Dean said." Sam interrupted. "And I know what it's like to want revenge."

* * *

Elena looked around as they appeared outside of a bar.

"Are you sure this is where we're supposed to be?" she asked.

"This is where I was told." Castiel nodded.

"Who told you?" she asked, looking back at him.

"A brother of mine. One who… no longer works with us." The angel said, looking up at the bar.

Elena shrugged and turning to walk inside. When she opened the door, she immediately caught sight of a skinny brunette sitting at the bar nursing a beer. She immediately flew forward, grabbing Ruby by the hair and ripping her off the stool. The activity in the bar halted as Ruby threw Elena backwards and turned to face her with her eyes fully black.

"What the hell?" she demanded.

"I could ask you the same thing." Elena snapped, starting forward with her eyes blazing and her level of anger rising.

This demon messed with Sam, one of **her** Winchesters. And Elena would make sure that she wasn't going to get away with it.

* * *

"This tomb was built in 1926. Four generations of the Millsap family were interred here." The cemetary director explained as they walked through a crypt.

"They don't build 'em like this anymore." Dean said, tapping on one of the stones in the wall.

"Tell me, Agent Nugent, have you thought about where you might like to spend eternity?" the man asked creeply, turning to face him.

Dean hesitated, then nodded. "All the damn time." he said before turning to look around the tomb.

"So, three bodies went missing. Any ideas who did it?" he asked, looking at one of the tombs that were broken open.

"Hooligans. Sick, deranged hooligans." The director said with disgust.

Dean noticed something spilled on the side of the tomb and approached it, touching the liquid. He recoiled as he smelled it, his gag reflex activated.

"This isn't blood. What is this?" he asked, turning to face the man.

"No, it's embalming fluid. Whoever committed this crime didn't just take the corpses. They opened them up." He said.

Dean looked up with a grimace on his face.

* * *

Elena glared at Ruby as the bartender came out of from behind the bar.

"Ladies, I don't like fights in my bar. Take it outside." he warned.

"I don't need to go anywhere. She attacked me." Ruby defended herself, pointing at Elena as her eyes went back to normal.

"What are you doing to Sam?" Elena demanded, starting forward.

Ruby smirked at her.

"I have no reason to talk to you about Sam." She said.

"How about, I'll kick your ass back to hell if you don't!" Elena threatened, darting forward.

"Try it." Ruby spat as Elena launched at her.

They collapsed to the ground and Ruby quickly flipped them over so that she was sitting on top of Elena.

"I will kill you." the demon growled, glaring down at her.

"You can try." Elena shot back, shoving her backwards and jumping up, ready to attack her again.

"Elena!" Castiel berated her, walking into the bar.

Ruby whirled around and stared at the angel with fearful eyes before turning to run past Elena. She caught the demon's arm and shoved her back towards Cas.

"You aren't going anywhere." She snapped as Cas caught her and began hauling her out.

"Look away." Elena snapped towards the inhabitants of the bar before she walked out of the bar, following Cas and Ruby.

The second they were outside, Elena took Castiel's hand as he reached towards her and they disappeared from the parking lot. She looked around to see that they were in an abandoned warehouse with a chair sitting in the middle of the room and a few chains sitting around. Castiel led a struggling Ruby to the chair and sat her in it. With a snap of his fingers, the chains were binding her wrists and legs to the chair. Elena stared down at her as she walked forward.

"Now, about Sam…" she trailed off.

* * *

Dean groaned as he took a seat at the empty bar and unfolded the papers that he was carrying. The middle aged female bartender walked over, filling a glass of beer at the tap.

"First beer's on the house for cops. Feds too." She said, sliding it in front of him.

"Am I that obvious?" Dean asked.

"I know all the local badges. And you've got that... Law & Order vibe." She informed him.

She picked up a cloth and began drying glasses as she stood in front of him.

"So, what's the FBI doing in Windom?" she asked.

"Looking into the disappearance of Joe Barton." He replied, sipping at the beer.

The bartender looked stricken as he slid the photograph across the table.

"I assume you knew him?" he said, judging by her look.

"A little. I'm his wife. Lisa." She said sadly.

"Well, Lisa, what can you tell me about his disappearance?" Dean asked.

"Same thing I told the sheriff. He stayed late Friday before last to do inventory. Never came home." Lisa answered, setting one glass down and picking up another.

"And the police?" he asked.

"Nothing. Truth is, I was scared they stopped looking. But now you're here." She said.

Dean looked at the pictures on the wall behind her and noticed one of Joe Barton.

"Joe was a cop?" he asked.

"Deputy. For a little while. That was a looong time ago." Lisa informed him, turning to look at the picture.

"He didn't happen to work the, uh, the grave robbery case, back in 'ninety?" Dean questioned.

"He did. Yeah. Joe was the one who found those bodies. He got an award for that." Lisa nodded, pointing at a picture of him accepting a medal.

"That was an interesting case." Dean said. "He ever tell you how he did it?"

"Most of the time, he said good, solid police work. But after a few beers, he'd admit he had a little help." Lisa explained.

"From who?" he asked.

"A specialist. That's all he'd say."

"Cops ever find the guy that stole the bodies?" Dean asked, taking another drink.

"No. But when I asked Joe about it, he'd say not to worry… that 'we took care of what done it'." she recited.

* * *

Sam watched as Adam practiced reassembling the handgun as he cleaned the shotgun that dean left behind.

"Sam... how did Dad really die?" Adam asked hesitantly.

"Demon." Sam said simply, looking down.

"You hunted it down? Got revenge?"

"Dean killed it." Sam nodded.

"So it's over for you." Adam confirmed.

Sam looked up at him and shook his head.

"It's never over." He said.

Suddenly the lights went out and something rattled in the room.

"What the…" Adam said, looking around.

"Shh." Sam hissed as they stood up. "Stay here."

Sam loaded the shotgun, approaching the door. When he opened and aimed the shotgun out, he saw nothing. Suddenly there was the noise again and he whirled around, aiming in the room. When he heard it again, he realized that it was in the ceiling.

"It's in the vents. Go!" he shouted, firing at the vent before shoving Adam out of the room, following him.

They hurried down the stairs and towards the parking lot.

"Where's your car?" Sam demanded.

"Over here." Adam said, gesturing to his truck.

"All right, keys."

"Here." Adam tossed him the keys and headed for the passenger side as Sam headed for the driver's seat. As he fumbled with the keys, something grabbed his ankle and yanked him to the ground, attempting to pull him under the truck. He grabbed the edge of the truck, resisting its hold.

"Sam!" Adam shouted as the Impala pulled up. "Dean, help!"

Dean jumped out and they each grabbed one of Sam's arms, pulling him free. Dean instantly grabbed the shotgun and fired under the truck. When it became silent, Dean looked down at Sam, who looked at Adam, who flopped onto the ground.

"Where the hell is Elena?" Dean demanded.

"She's… uh…" Sam said, looking around as he realized how long she'd been gone.

"Sam! She went to the grocery store an hour ago! Did you not think to look for her?" Dean growled, standing up and shoving the shotgun into his chest.

"I was kind of caught up in other stuff, Dean." Sam defended himself, gesturing to Adam.

"Yeah, I'm sure you two bonded real good." He snapped, turning to begin pacing.

"Dean, I'm sure she's all right. This is Elena we're talking about. She can take care of herself." Sam said.

Dean shook his head, refusing to acknowledge his brother's words. He'd passed the grocery store and it was closed so he assumed that Elena was back at the hotel by that time.

"Dammit!" he said, kicking at a rock.

Dean and Sam watched as Adam's truck backed out and revealed a grate underneath. Adam jumped out as Dean aimed the shotgun down the hole. He spotted a little blood on the side of the grate and pulled away, turning around.

"I winged it. Did you see anything?" Dean asked, turning to Sam.

"I didn't get a good look." Sam said, shaking his head as he leaned against the hood of the Impala.

"What the hell is this thing?" Dean demanded frustratingly

"Why… who… should we go after it?" Adam stammered out.

"No, no. In that maze? That thing's long gone." The older brother said, shaking his head.

"All right, so, we don't know what it is, but we do know who it's going after. Joe Barton, Adam's mom…" Sam said.

"And Adam. It was under his truck, just waiting for him." Dean nodded.

"It set a trap, and I walked right into it."

"Doesn't matter. You're right… there's a pattern. Joe Barton was a cop. I'm pretty sure he helped out Dad. So we've got him, Dad's girl, and his son." Dean listed.

"All the people Dad knew in town." Sam nodded.

"At least we know why it's back." Dean shrugged.

"It wants revenge." Adam nodded as Dean and Sam looked at him.

* * *

Elena sighed as she paced the room, glaring over at Ruby.

"You haven't even touched me. Come on, Elena. It's been an hour and all you've done is ask questions. I'm sure you're just dying to rip my eyes out." Ruby taunted.

"I'm actually not, bitch. But thanks for asking." Elena snapped.

"Hmm… this is boring." The demon sighed, letting her head fall back.

"Elena…" Castiel said, walking forward.

"I have to figure this out, Cas." She sighed, turning to face him.

"I know that you are desperate to find this out but I do not think she is going to say anything. Not like this." he said.

"I'm not torturing her, Cas." She snapped.

"I wasn't suggesting that. I'm not making that mistake again. I'm saying that maybe you should go straight to the source. Sam trusts you. Maybe he will speak to you quicker than this demon will." He suggested, his eyes imploring.

She sighed and rubbed her head.

"I just don't know how to handle this, Cas." She sighed.

He placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"It will be all right, Elena. We'll figure it out." he said, reassuring her.

"Isn't this heartwarming?" Ruby said, smirking between them. "Does Dean know? I mean, he had a thing with Anna. Why can't you have one with Castiel here?"

Elena turned her head slowly to glare at her. She walked forward, her hand forming a fist, and slammed it into the side of Ruby's face, causing the chair to fall to the ground and Ruby's head to slam against the concrete.

"Maybe I lied. I have been dying to do that." she sighed, flexing her hand out as it screamed in pain.

Then she turned back to Cas.

"This is getting me nowhere. Let's go." she said.

"Wait, are you just going to leave me here?" Ruby said, glaring up at them as her forehead bled onto the floor.

They looked back at her as Elena took Castiel's hand.

"Yep." She shrugged, turning to nod at Castiel before they disappeared.

When they reappeared in front of a house, she turned to look at the angel with confusion.

"Dean and Sam are on their way here." He assured her.

"Thank you for helping me, Cas. I'm sorry I wasted your time with Ruby. I just… I can't bring myself to torture her or anything." She sighed, looking down at her hands.

"Elena, you are very pure of heart. It does not surprise me that you can't do such things." he explained.

She sighed and shook her head. She heard the sound of car engines and turned to see a truck and the Impala pulling up to the house. The headlights washed over them and she caught sight of Dean's panicked face in the driver's seat of the Impala when he noticed that they were there. He pushed the door open and slammed it shut before stomping up to them, fury all over his face.

"Where were you?" he demanded, looking at Elena.

"Dean, I'm sorry. I was…" she trailed off, unsure of what to say as Adam and Sam walked up.

"She was with me. I… requested her help on something." Castiel explained.

Dean's eyes narrowed as he looked between them.

"With what, exactly?" he questioned.

"Can we just talk about this later, please?" she asked pleadingly, looking up at him with wide eyes.

He clenched his jaw and nodded, turning back to Cas.

"I would appreciate it if you wouldn't just drag her off next time without a warning. We thought she was in trouble." He said to the angel.

"Dean, stop it. It's not his fault, it's mine, okay?" Elena said, putting her hands on his chest.

He looked down at her and saw the honesty in her eyes before nodding once more and backing off.

"I will be going now." Castiel nodded before disappearing, much to Adam's bewilderment.

* * *

Elena walked behind the three males as they entered the house that she found out was Adam's house.

"Grab your stuff. We'll hit the road." Dean said as Adam flipped on the kitchen lights.

He nodded and turned to walk out. Sam sat at the kitchen table and winced as he placed his ankle on another chair.

"What happened?" Elena asked, instantly appearing at his side.

"Got dragged under a truck by my ankle." He said, gesturing to his foot.

Elena slid his jeans up and observed the slightly swollen ankle before placing her hand to it softly.

"We shouldn't leave." Sam said as she concentrated.

"Yeah, let's stay here, where the kid's mom got ganked. Good one." Dean scoffed.

"I'm serious." Sam said, looking up at him.

"No, Sam, we're gonna take the kid, we're gonna drop him off at Bobby's, and then you and me are gonna come back here and finish what Dad started." Dean argued.

"How? We got no leads, no witnesses. We do have what this thing wants." Sam asked.

"You want to use the kid as bait? That's why you want to stay here?" Dean scoffed as Elena finished healing Sam and stood, looking between them as he took his foot off of the chair.

"Maybe this thing will come back. We could train Adam… get him ready." He said, standing up as well.

"He could die, Sam." Dean said.

"We could all die, Dean. Even if we do kill this thing, there are tons of other freaks that want revenge, on Dad, on us. What if they find the kid instead and he's not ready?"

They all looked up as Adam returned, a backpack thrown over his shoulder and a face that told them that he heard everything.

"I, uh, I brought you ace bandages." He said, holding them out to Sam.

"I don't need them." He said automatically.

"But you were limping earlier. Are you really going to fight with a sprained ankle?" Adam said, looking at Sam with questioning eyes.

"Elena took care of it." Dean said simply.

"I'll do it. Whatever it takes, I'll do it. I want to do it." Adam said, looking between them as he gave up on the ace bandages.

Dean looked at Sam with cold eyes as Sam looked at Adam as if he was sizing him up. Elena shifted uncomfortably in the awkward atmosphere.

* * *

Elena leaned against the Impala early the next morning along with Dean. They were in a field and Sam and Adam were about fifty feet from the Impala shooting at a sign on the fence that had several circles spraypainted on it. Sam was teaching Adam to shoot as they watched.

"Where were you?" Dean asked, watching as Sam took three shots at the sign.

"I went to find Ruby. Cas was helping me." Elena sighed, looking at the ground and she kicked at the small rocks.

Dean looked at her with wide eyes.

"You went after Ruby? What the…" he began.

"No, not after her. I wasn't looking to kill her. I wanted to find out…" she lifted her eyes, focusing on Sam who was coaching Adam through shooting as the younger man held the gun shakily.

"Find out?" Dean urged her to continue.

"What the hell she's doing to Sam." She said, turning to face him.

Dean looked confused.

"Come on, Dean. He's not just doing the psychic powers crap. There's something else. Something that he doesn't want us to find out." she said, trying to convince him.

"How can you be so sure?" he asked.

"Well I wasn't sure until now. Now I'm positive. I called Chuck to ask if he'd seen anything and he freaked out and hung up on me. I called Cas and he offered to help me because he had no idea what was happening either. He found out where Ruby was and we took her. Nothing happened. No torture or anything." She said, regretting it when Dean flinched at the mention of torture.

"I just asked her questions and she refused to answer them. Castiel was there the whole time making sure that everything was all right." Elena assured him.

"And?" he asked, looking down at her.

"Nothing. She didn't say a word. But she was hiding something. They all are." She said, her eyes flickering over to Sam again.

He sighed and leaned against the Impala once more, staring out at his brother as he grinned down at Adam as he let out three decent shots towards the sign.

"You're a natural." Sam announced and Dean shook his head as he flinched.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked, placing a hand on his arm.

"My dad said those exact same words to me in that exact same tone of voice the first time he took me shooting." He sighed.

"How old were you?" she questioned.

"Six or seven." He shrugged.

"And?" she asked, causing him to look down at her.

"How'd you do?" she asked, smiling up at him.

"Bullseyed every one of them." He shrugged, the corners of his mouth lifting.

"Look at you, all full of yourself." She said, grinning as she took his hand in hers.

* * *

When Elena walked into the motel room, her arms full of food, she found Sam and Adam spread out on a bed with multiple books open in front of them. Dean was sitting at the table watching them.

"Food!" she announced, letting it all spill onto the table.

"So, then we lit it on fire." Sam finished his story as they stood to grab food.

"With a homemade flamethrower?" Adam asked, impressed.

"Yeah. They're easy to build. I'll show you." Sam shrugged.

"That is some job you got, man." Adam informed.

Elena stood back with Dean as they watched them talk.

"Being a hunter isn't a job, Adam. It's life. You're pre-med. You got a girlfriend, friends?" Sam asked him as they returned to the bed.

Adam nodded.

"Not anymore you don't. If you're really gonna do this, you can't have those kinds of connections, ever. They're weaknesses. You'll just put those people in danger, get them killed." He said seriously.

Dean looked away as Elena stared at Sam with consternation.

"That's the price we pay. You cut 'em out, and you don't look back. There's only one thing you can count on. Family." He shrugged.

"Sam." Dean finally said, causing him to look over at them.

"Can I talk to you?" he said, going to walk out of the motel room as Sam followed.

Elena remained in the room, dropping into a chair and pulling her food out of the bag.

"How did you get involved with them? My brothers?" Adam asked, looking at her.

"That's a long story." Elena answered, taking a bite out of her burger.

"I'm not going anywhere." He shrugged, leaning back as he looked over at her.

She stared at him for a moment, suspicious. She wondered if her suspicion was for a legitimate reason or if she was naturally that way after spending so much time with the Winchesters.

"It's a story for another time." she said with a hesitant smile.

"Well I know you're not a hunter. At least you didn't grow up as one." Adam said.

"What makes you think that?" she asked, putting her feet up on the chair.

"Because you wear pretty clothes." He said, gesturing to her outfit.

She stared at him, narrowing her eyes.

"I don't think my life… or my clothes… are any of your business, Adam." She snapped, unable to help her reaction.

"It is… because it's my brothers' life too. I can look out for them just as easily as they can look out for me." Adam shrugged.

"You don't know what you're talking about so I suggest that you shut the hell up. You can challenge me all you want but the thing is, those two brothers out there are my family and I constantly try to make sure that they're safe. And the next time you want to make assumptions about someone based on how they dress, make sure they don't have a knife in their pretty boots." She snapped, pulling the sharp weapon halfway out before sliding it back into the boot again.

Adam stared at her with wide eyes and she nodded triumphantly, going back to eating.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Dean demanded once he closed the door.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Hunting is life. You can't have connections. Dad gave you that exact same speech, remember? It was just before you ditched us for Stanford. You hated Dad for saying that stuff, and now you're quoting him?" he demanded.

"Yeah, well, turns out Dad was right." Sam shrugged.

"Since when?"

"Since always. Dean, when I look at Adam, you know what I see?" the younger brother said.

"A normal kid." Dean said.

"No. Meat. Because to the demons and monsters out there, that's all he is. I hated Dad for a long time. I did. But now I think I understand. So we didn't have a dog and a white picket fence. So what? Dad did right by us. He taught us how to protect ourselves. Adam deserves the same." Sam argued.

"Listen to yourself, man." Dean scoffed, shaking his head.

"You think I'm wrong?" Sam asked.

"I think it's too late for us. This is our life. This is who we are, okay? And it's fine. I accept that. But with Adam, he's still got a chance, man. He can go to school. He could be a doctor." Dean said, gesturing back at the room.

"What makes Adam so special?" Sam demanded.

"What, are you jealous of the kid?" Dean asked, turning to face Sam.

"Are you?" Sam fired back.

Silence filled the air for a moment before Sam sighed.

"Dean...all this...it's not real. The dad Adam knew… he wasn't real. The things out there in the shadows… they are real. The world is coming to an end. That's real. Everything else is just part of the crap people tell themselves to get through the day." He said.

"Dad didn't have a choice with us, okay? But with Adam, he did. Adam doesn't have to be cursed." Dean said.

"He's a Winchester. He's already cursed." Sam said, shaking his head.

"No. No, whatever's hunting Adam, I'm gonna find it." Dean promised.

"You already looked everywhere, Dean." Sam

"Well, then I'll look again." He said, turning to walk back into the motel room.

* * *

"You two go to Adam's house. Salt everything. Take weapons. Just keep the kid safe until we get back." Dean said as him and Elena walked towards the door, both holding a shotgun each.

"Why do you go hunting and I stay behind?" Sam demanded.

"Because he needs to be protected." Dean said simply, gesturing to Adam before they walked out.

* * *

Elena stood outside the tomb as he opened it, holding a flashlight in one hand her gun in the other. As Dean shined his flashlight around the tomb, eh noticed a loose stone large enough to hide a tunnel and pulled his head out, setting down the gun and flashlight to grab a crowbar. Elena supplied the light as he worked it out and revealed there was indeed a tunnel. He leaned in once more and shined his flashlight in it before shaking his head and turning to her.

"I'm gonna go in. You stay here." He instructed her.

"No, Dean…" she began to argue.

"I'll be right back." he assured her, grabbing his gun and climbing into the tunnel.

"Home sweet home." she heard him grumble as he crawled further into it.

"There's a room!" he announced.

"Hey and… I found Joe. He's uh… Sloppy Joe." He informed her, making her grimace disgustedly.

Suddenly they both heard something in the tunnel and she heard Dean fire his gun. The following noise of rock and dirty falling made her dart forward to see that the tunnel had collapsed.

"Dean!" she shrieked, scrambling forward to attempt to dig through the dirt.

All it did was produce more dirt. They were screwed.

* * *

Adam was nailing boards over every vent as Sam poured salt along every window and door.

"All right. We've closed off every other way into the house. If this thing's coming, it's coming through here." Sam said as they stood over the vent in his mother's room.

A creak sounded in the house, like a door opening.

"You were saying?" Adam said, raising an eyebrow at Sam.

"Adam! Adam!" a voice called from downstairs, panicked.

"Mom?" Adam said, whirling around.

"No." Sam said, shaking his head at Adam.

"Mom!" He yelled.

"Adam!" Sam shouted as the kid took off downstairs.

He grabbed his shotgun and ran after him.

"Mom." Adam said as he caught sight of her in the kitchen and ran to her, embracing her.

"Adam, wait!" Sam said, running into the kitchen.

"It took me, but I got away." She breathed, hugging him back tightly.

"It's okay." Adam said.

"I got away." Kate said, smiling.

Sam picked up the shotgun and aimed it at the woman.

"Adam, step away from her." he instructed the young man.

"Sam, what the hell?!" Adam demanded.

"She's not your mother!" Sam yelled.

"Adam, who… what is going on?" the woman asked, looking startled.

* * *

Dean looked around, not sure what else to do but explore as he'd already tried kicking the door out of the tomb. He pushed a skeleton out of the way with his foot and looked over at the coffin. When he reached out to touch it, he found that there was relatively fresh blood on the outside. As it creaked open, he coughed and covered his nose and mouth with his arm, immediately recognizing the corpse inside as that of Kate Milligan.

* * *

"Get away from him!" Sam shouted, still pointing the gun at her.

"What is going on?" the woman asked hysterically.

"You listen to me." Sam said, looking at Adam.

"It's really her, okay?" Adam said desperately.

"There was too much blood. Your mother's dead. There was too much blood in the vents!" he said, shoving Adam away from her.

He was caught offguard when Adam took the gun from him.

"Adam!" Kate cried.

"Shoot it!" Sam urged him.

"He's crazy! Honey, it's me!" she said pleadingly.

Adam pointed the gun at Sam, then Kate, then back at Sam, looking confused.

"Look… Adam!" Sam said.

"Honey, it's me!" she said desperately.

"Look, that's not your mother!" Sam snapped.

"Baby, please!" Kate said.

"Shoot it! It's not human!"

Adam suddenly leveled the gun and smirked, turning to Sam.

"I know." He said, slamming the butt of the shotgun into his chin and causing him to fall on the ground unconscious.

* * *

Dean prepared himself as he opened another coffin, wondering if someone went missing that they didn't know about. His eyes widened and he stumbled back, choking on the smell. There was a lot of blood in the coffin. And the body of Adam Milligan.

* * *

Sam's eyes fluttered open and he immediately found himself tied down to a table. He looked around to see 'Kate' standing there humming and picking at her nails with a knife.

"Silver. No wonder none of the tests worked. You're not shapeshifters. You're ghouls." He said, glaring at her.

"You know, I find that term racist." She said, waving her knife to emphasize her point before sniffing him from hand to neck and nibbling on his ear.

"Mmm. Fresh meat. So much better than what we're used to." She murmured, sounding overjoyed.

"I should have known. It was the fresh kills that threw me. Ghouls don't usually go after the living. See, you're just filthy scavengers, feeding off the dead… taking the form of the last corpse you choke down."

"And their thoughts. And their memories. Like Adam, for instance." 'Adam' said, walking in with a smirk.

"Well, we are what we eat." 'Kate' said, smiling deviously.

"You're monsters." Sam snapped.

'Kate' drew the knife across his arm and the blood began to leak out.

"You know, you use that word a lot, Sam." 'Adam' said as she began to drink his blood.

He threw his own knife on the table by Sam's head.

"But I don't think you know what it means." He said.

"His blood, it tastes different." 'Kate' marveled as her head lifted.

"Our father was a monster? Why? Because of what he ate? He never hurt anyone, Sam. Living, anyway." 'Adam' said.

The female ghoul pulled the knife free.

"No. He was no monster. But the thing that killed him was. A monster named John Winchester." She said, glaring at Sam who looked back at her.

* * *

Elena didn't know what to do. She'd spent the better part of ten minutes trying to come up with a plan. Suddenly, she heard the sound of glass breaking from outside. She ran out and around the crypt, watching as a figure came flying out of a window.

"Dean!" she cried, running forward to check him for injuries.

"Elena." he gasped out as she helped him up.

"Are you ok? Broken anything?" she questioned, looking up at his dirt-smudged face.

"I'm fine. We have to get to Sam." He said, grabbing her hand and dragging her along.

"Why?" she asked, wide-eyed as they ran to the Impala.

"Because I just found Adam Milligan's body in there." he replied, causing her blood to run cold.

* * *

Sam winced, crying out in pain as 'Adam' dug a finger into a stab wound in his side.

"Thanks to your daddy, my brother and I grew up on our own. At least we had each other." 'Kate' said, smirking at Sam as the ghoul in Adam's form licked his finger.

"Like you and your brother. Inseparable." 'Adam' said.

"Actually, it was very hard to get you on your own."

"Like you said, Sam, the only thing you can count on is family." 'Adam' said.

"And for twenty years, we lived like rats." 'Kate' said, licking more blood from his arm.

"Graveyard after graveyard, all that stinking flesh." 'Adam' said.

"Then we thought, hey, why not move up to fresher game?"

"And we knew just where to start." 'Adam' said, dugging the point of the knife into the cut on Sam's arm, making him grunt in pain.

"Revenge—it's never over, is it, Sam?" he asked, smirking down at him.

"First, it was John's cop friend, and then his slut, and then his son." 'Kate' shrugged.

"Then I called John, but the son of a bitch was already dead." 'Adam' said.

"So I guess you and Dean will have to do instead." 'Kate' said.

"Dean won't interrupt us this time. We're gonna feed on you nice and slow… like we did with Adam."

"Oh, and, by the way, he really was your brother." 'Kate' informed Sam as he struggled.

"You should know that." she said.

"He was still alive when we took our first bites." 'Adam' said.

"And he was a screamer." 'Kate' said gleefully.

They each opened gashes on Sam's wrists and he began to bleed into two bowls that were in place to catch the blood.

"Sam, the more you struggle, the faster you're gonna bleed out." 'Adam' berated him. "So you might as well lie back and relax."

"Hey!" Dean shouted as him and Elena ran into the room, both holding guns.

He fired on 'Adam', hitting his shoulder and throwing him through the wall, before he chase after him.

"Dean, they're ghouls!" Sam shouted.

Dean paused and then nodded, turning to Elena.

"Which means head-shot." He said and she nodded, turning to 'Kate' as she raised her gun.

The gunfire ripped through the air and blood spattered on the wall, as the headless form of the ghoul who took Kate Milligan's form fell to the ground.

'Adam' ran back and tackled Dean.

"Help Sam!" Dean growled as he grabbed Adam and flipped them over, taking a metal bar from his jacket and attempting to slam it into the ghoul's head.

Elena ran to Sam and pulled her knife out of her boot, sawing at the ropes as he twisted and grunted in pain and the blood continued to pour out of his wounds.

"Stay still. You're making it worse." She instructed, finishing one hand and moving onto the other.

When he was untied, she chanced a glance at Dean to see him bashing the ghoul's head in with the metal bar. Sam let out a cry of pain as he tried to sit up.

"Come on. Hang on." she said, climbing up onto the table beside him as she helped him to a sitting position.

She placed her hands over his wounds, closing her eyes and concentrating as the blood ran over her hands. She felt the warmth flowing through them both but felt something else as well. Something was wrong with him. The blood that was on her skin felt as though it was too thick. She shuddered and pulled away, opening her eyes to find that he was healed and breathing heavily, looking exhausted. Dean ran over to check on them both.

"Thank you." Sam said to them, looking between the two.

"That's what family's for, right?" Dean said.

Elena looked up at Sam to see him shifting his eyes away from them.

"Yeah, that's what family's for." She agreed.

* * *

"You sure we should do this?" Sam asked as Dean opened a bottle of lighter fluid.

Elena looked down at the body, wrapped in sheets, that was lying on a funeral pyre.

"Ghouls didn't fake those pictures. They didn't fake Dad's journal." Dean said, sprinkling the fluid over Adam's body. "Adam was our brother. He died like a hunter. He deserves to go out like one."

"Maybe we can bring him back. Get a hold of Cas, call in a favor." Sam suggested.

"No, Adam's in a better place." Dean refused, lighting a match and tossing it on the pyre.

Elena stood between them, watching as the body burned. She felt bad for these brothers. Because even if they wouldn't admit it, they were happy to have found Adam and the fact that he turned out to be dead already hurt them more than they would ever say. She reached out and slowly took both of their hands, staring solemnly at the flames.

"You know, I finally get why you and Dad butted heads so much. You two were practically the same person." Dean said, making both Sam and Elena look over at him.

"I mean, I worshipped the guy, you know? I dressed like him, I acted like him, I listen to the same music. But you were more like him than I will ever be. And I see that now." He nodded.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Sam said after a few moments of silence.

"You take it any way you want." Dean sighed carelessly, his hand clutching Elena's as she looked up at him with a sad face.

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope you liked it!**

**A few things:**

**1. Next chapter, we finally meet the vessel behind Castiel, Jimmy Novak.**

**2. Everyone finds out Sam's secret and no one is happy.**

**3. Castiel tells Elena who her angel guardian is.**

**4. There are only three chapters left in this part of the story!**

**5. Review please!**


	29. Chapter 29

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, TheElegantFaerie, Nyssandria, RHatch89, IgnitingFireworks, xxPaige23xx, slayerdiaries, neontreeslover, Meowgli, Dark Alana, and DrawingMyHeartOut for reviewing!**

**A few things:**

**1. I know that a few people have requested for me to write the music down that I listen to/that inspires me while I'm writing the chapter so I'm going to start doing that. Just a warning, it might be really random because I literally just listen to my music on shuffle. So I'll list the songs at the beginning of every chapter from now on in this part and in the sequel.**

**2. Also, a few readers have voiced their concerns that Elena is being with Dean like she was with Damon and Stefan. I promise that is not what I am intending to write. Remember that she's still eighteen and she's getting used to everything. Trust me, in the sequel, she will find her way and she will not take that crap and Dean will know it. Dean is also not really to blame. He has a teenage girl that first of all, he has feelings for, and second of all, he's never had to deal with someone so young hunting when them outside of his family. He's still getting used to it all. I hope that helps some.**

**3. Only two chapters left after this, guys. I almost can't believe it.**

* * *

**Songs:**

**1. The Willow – Joshua Radin (Dean's dream)**

**2. Houses – Great Northern (Finding Jimmy through Sam waking them up when Jimmy leaves)**

**3. Running Out of Time – Joshua Radin (Anna appears through arriving at the warehouse)**

**4. Don't Say a Word – Ellie Goulding (I listened to this from the scene where Jimmy begs Cas to take him instead of his daughter and through the end)**

**I told you they were random but it's what I listen to so I hope you don't hate it too much.**

* * *

Dean leaned his head back slowly, relishing in the warm sun on his face as he sat on the dock, his fishing pole in his hands. When he heard bare feet slapping against the wood behind him, his eyes opened to see Elena run past him. He smiled when he saw her in a lace swimsuit cover up that quickly came off to reveal a black two piece swimsuit. She turned back and winked at him before diving into the warm water. When she surfaced, she grinned up at him.

"You're going to chase all the fish away!" he said, half complaining.

"You were gonna throw them back in, anyways." She said, shrugging as she turned to stroke lazily through the water, her bronze body glimmering underneath the water.

Dean found himself watching her instead of concentrating on anything to do with fishing. When he heard the flutter of wings, his smile dropped.

"We need to talk." Castiel said, standing beside him.

Elena didn't even look up to acknowledge that Castiel was there so Dean instinctively knew something was different.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" he asked.

Cas nodded before looking out at the water.

"It's not safe here. Someplace more private." He said.

"More private? We're inside my head." Dean scoffed.

"Exactly. Someone could be listening." The angel said.

"Cas, what's wrong?" Dean asked, looking up at him with a worried expression.

"Meet me here." He said, handing him a piece of paper. "Go now."

Dean looked up and Cas was gone. He sighed and looked out down at the paper, memorizing the address before looking out at Elena, who was swimming back to the dock. She lifted herself up onto the wooden platform, droplets sliding down her toned body, standing up and ringing her hair out.

"I lov…" she began with a grin.

* * *

Dean woke up with a gasp, starting as he stared up into the darkness. Elena sat up next to him, looking down with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

He looked at her and squeezed his eyes shut before opening them.

"We have to go." he mumbled, sitting up and causing her to lean away slightly.

"Why?" she asked.

"I think Cas is in trouble. He was in my head and asked us to meet him at an address. It's a few towns over." Dean said, looking over at her.

"Okay." She said, sighing as she slid out of bed and walked over to Sam to shake him awake.

They all got up and took turns in the bathroom, changing clothes and getting their stuff together. Elena elected to remain in a comfortable outfit since it was the middle of the night. Sam and Dean were in their normal clothing. Her hair was thrown up into a ponytail. Thirty minutes later they were heading out of town.

* * *

When they arrived at the warehouse, Elena walked slightly behind Dean and Sam yawning as she held a handgun. She stopped and stretched, having fallen asleep in the car and desperately needing to wake herself up fully. The brothers stopped and turned around, staring at her warily.

"Should we take the gun away from you so that you don't accidentally shoot us?" Dean asked hesitantly.

"Nah." She shook her head, smiling at him as she gestured for them to walk once again.

"What did he say, Dean? What was so important?" Sam asked.

"If I knew, would I be here?" Dean fired back as they began to walk up a pair of stairs.

"What the hell?" Elena muttered, looking around at the mostly destroyed warehouse.

Sparks were going off everywhere and it looked like something bad went down.

"It looks like a bomb went off." Sam said.

"There was a fight here." Dean acknowledged.

"Between who?" Sam wondered.

Elena looked up at the wall as Dean's flashlight shined on it.

"Hey." She pulled him back and had him shine it on the wall again.

"Check it out. Look familiar?" she asked, looking at the brothers.

"Yeah, it does." Sam nodded, looking up at the angel-banishing sigil painted in scarlet blood.

"Anna used something like that to wish the angels back to the cornfield." Dean nodded.

"So, what? Cas was fighting angels?" Sam asked.

"I don't know." Dean shrugged as they turned to continue looking around.

Dean started forward and his eyes widened at something.

"Cas? Cas. Hey, Cas?" he said as they all recognized his figure lying on some of the rubble.

He groaned and his eyes fluttered open.

"What's… what's… what's going on?" he said, his voice sounding different and making Elena and Sam exchange hesitant looks.

"Just take it easy. Take it easy." Dean said as he stood, looking around wildly as he turned in circles.

"Oh. No." he said, his eyes wide.

"Cas, you okay?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"Ugh. Castiel. I'm not Castiel. It's me." he said, shaking his head.

"Who's 'me'?" Elena questioned.

"Jimmy. My name's Jimmy." He sighed, pressing a hand to his head.

"Where the hell is Castiel?" Dean demanded, trying and failing not to sound frustrated.

"He's gone." Jimmy said, looking between all of them.

* * *

They all watched with widened eyes as they sat at a table in the motel room and Jimmy ate quickly, downing two burgers and moving onto another one.

"You mind slowing down? You're gonna give me angina." Dean said, sounding almost pained.

"I'm hungry." Jimmy said defensively.

Elena shifted uncomfortably. She was used to looking into that face and seeing wisdom and acknowledgment. She was used to feeling comfortable around him. This man in front of them… he was a stranger. She, sadly enough, found herself wishing that Castiel would repossess this poor man.

"When's the last time you ate?" Sam asked, looking at him sympathetically.

"I don't know. Months." He sighed, taking another bite as he continued to eat ravenously.

"What the hell happened back there? It looked like an angel battle royale." Sam asked.

"All I remember is a flash of light and I, uh… I woke up and I was just, you know, like, me again." He shrugged, looking at them.

"So, what? Cas just ditched out of your meat suit?" Dean asked.

"I really don't know." Jimmy said, shaking his head.

"You remember anything about being possessed? Anything at all?" Elena asked, avoiding looking in his eyes as she asked the question.

"Yeah, bits and pieces. I mean, angel inside of you, it's kinda like being chained to a comet." Jimmy said, shuddering slightly.

"Ah, that doesn't sound like much fun." Dean said, grimacing.

"Understatement." He nodded.

"Cas said he wanted to tell us something. Please tell me you remember that." Sam said pleadingly.

"Sorry." Jimmy said, sounding regretful.

"Come on, what do you know?" Dean urged him, sounding a bit desperate.

"My name is Jimmy Novak. I'm from Pontiac, Illinois." He answered. "I have a family."

Elena sighed and stood, looking down at him.

"I'm sorry you got taken away from your family." She said, needing to say that so that she could assuage some of the guilt that she was feeling over wanting Cas to come back.

"It was my choice. I said yes to Castiel." Jimmy said, looking up at her.

She bit her lip and looked at Sam and Dean.

"I need air." She said simply, turning to walk out of the motel room.

* * *

Elena leaned against the Impala watching Sam and Dean as they walked out several minutes later.

"You all right?" Dean asked.

She shrugged, looking down at her shoes.

"So, what do we do?" Sam asked.

"What do you mean? The guy's got a family. We buy him a bus ticket, send him home." Dean said.

"I don't know about that. Dean, he's the only lead we got." Sam said.

"He doesn't know anything." Elena sighed, looking up at them.

"Are you 100 percent about that?" Sam asked.

"You think he's lying? What, you wanna go Guantanamo on the guy?" Dean demanded.

"Dean, maybe he doesn't even know what he knows." He shrugged.

"Huh?" Dean asked, confused at what Sam meant.

"I say, at least we get him to Bobby's. Maybe all he needs is hypnosis or a psychic. Or hell, maybe Cas will just drop back into him." Sam suggested.

"I don't know, man." Dean said, looking back at the motel where they could see Jimmy's shadow pacing.

"Dean, back there, that was angel-on-angel violence. Now, I don't know what's going on, but it's big. And we can't just let the only lead we got just skip out." Sam said, gesturing with his hands.

Dean shook his head, looking down.

"What?" Sam demanded.

"You remember when our job was helping people? Like, getting them back to their families?" Dean questioned him.

"You think I don't want to help him? I'm just being realistic. I mean, hell, we're doing him a favor." Sam shrugged.

"How?" Dean demanded.

"Dean, Sam has a point. If we want to know what he knows, you can damn well bet the demons do, too." She pointed out.

Dean looked at her and nodded slowly, sighing in defeat.

* * *

"The hell are you talking about, I can't go home?" Jimmy demanded, glaring between all of them.

"There's a good chance you have a bull's-eye on your back." Dean explained.

"What? From who?" he asked skeptically.

"Demons." Elena answered.

"Come on, that's crazy. What do they want with me?" the man scoffed.

"I don't know, information, maybe?" Dean said, looking back at Sam who was sitting in a chair.

"I don't know anything!" he exclaimed.

"I know, but…" Dean said, sounding annoyed with the man and with the situation that they were in.

"Look, I'm done, okay? With demons, angels, all of it. I just want to go home." Jimmy said.

"We understand." Dean sighed.

"I don't think that you do understand. I've been shot and stabbed and healed, and my body has been dragged all over the Earth. By some miracle, I'm out, and I am done. I've given enough, okay?" Jimmy said.

"Look, all we're saying is that until we figure this out, the safest place is with us." Sam suggested.

"How long?" he demanded after a moment.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Sam shrugged.

Jimmy shook his head in refusal, moving to walk past Sam to go to the door.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked, turning around.

"To see my wife and daughter, okay?" Jimmy snapped, looking up at Sam in frustration when he stopped him.

"No, you're not. You're just going to put those people in danger." Sam said.

"So, what, now I'm a prisoner?" he questioned, looking back at them.

"Harsh way to put it." Sam shrugged.

* * *

That night, Elena and Dean were shaken awake too early for the second night in a row, both of them groaning and swatting Sam's hands away.

"You have to get up." Sam said desperately.

"What the hell?" Dean demanded.

"Jimmy's gone." He said, making both of them sit up and stare at him.

"You've got to be kidding me." Elena sighed.

Dean just shook his head and chuckled.

"Looks like we're off… again." He said.

"No, this time I'm taking a shower. We know where he's going so it won't be hard to find him." Elena snapped, pushing herself out of bed and stomping to the bathroom.

"I'm with her." Dean shrugged, hurrying into the bathroom behind her.

* * *

"Dean. Would you hurry up?" Sam demanded from out in the room as Dean and Elena got ready in front of the mirror.

Elena was finishing up her make-up and hair as he brushed his teeth. They looked at each other and she smirked as she straightened her black skirt and red sweater.

"Why don't you have to hurry up?" he whispered.

"Because Sam knows I would kick his ass if he suggested it." she whispered back, turning to walk out of the bathroom with him following her.

When they caught sight of Sam's panicked face, both of them laughed.

"Sorry, uh, this is funny to you?" Sam asked, mainly talking to Dean.

"Mr. Big-Bad-Prison-Guard, Jimmy McMook give you the slip? Yeah, it's pretty funny." Dean nodded, grinning.

"What were you doing, anyway?" Elena asked suspiciously as she pulled her high heeled boots on.

"I was getting a Coke." Sam said, his eyes shifting slightly.

"Was it a refreshing Coke?" Dean asked, taunting him some more as Elena's eyes narrowed at the younger brother.

She knew that he was lying.

"Can we just go, please?" Sam sighed, tired of being made fun of.

"I think I'm ready now." Elena shrugged as she pulled on her black woolen coat.

"Yeah I think we can go." Dean nodded, picking up his duffle bag.

* * *

Dean and Sam were sitting in the front seat and Elena was sitting the back. She felt the presence appear next to her but didn't have time to warn Dean and Sam before she spoke.

"Hey, guys." Anna said.

"Aah!" They both shouted, Dean jerking the steering wheel.

"Jeez!" Dean exclaimed as the Impala swerved before he got it back under control again.

"Smooth." The redheaded angel sighed.

"You ever try calling ahead?" Dean demanded as Elena stared at her with wide eyes.

"I like the element of surprise." Anna shrugged.

"Hey Elena." she nodded at her.

"Hi, Anna." Elena said, shifting uncomfortably as she remembered the last two times she was in a place with Dean and Anna.

"You let Jimmy go?" she demanded, looking up at the brothers.

"Talk to ginormo here." Dean said, cocking his head to Sam.

"Sam. You seem different." Anna said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Me? I don't know. Heh. A haircut?" Sam said nervously.

"That's not what I'm talking about." She cut him off, giving him a meaningful look before he looked away, out the window. Elena watched their exchange with close attention.

"So, what'd Jimmy tell you? He remember anything?" She asked.

"Why? What's going on?" Elena asked.

"It's Castiel. He got sent back home. Well, more like dragged back." Anna explained.

"To heaven? That's not a good thing?" Dean asked.

"No. That's a very bad thing. Painfully, awfully bad. He must have seriously pissed someone off." she informed them.

"Cas said he had something to tell us. Something important." he told the angel.

"What?" Anna asked.

"I don't know." Dean shrugged.

"Does Jimmy know?"

"I don't think so." he said.

"You don't think so? Whatever it is, it's huge. You gotta find out for sure." Anna urged them.

"That's why we're going after Jimmy." Sam said.

"That's why you shouldn't have let him go in the first place. He's probably dead already." She sighed, making them all look at her.

"Well aren't you a big ball of sunshine?" Elena grumbled, turning to look out the window.

She was in a bad mood. Cas was nowhere to be found and it was possible that he was being punished in heaven. They'd lost Jimmy because Sam was off doing God (and Anna apparently) knows what.

* * *

When they stopped for gas, Elena watched as Sam jumped out and ran inside, claiming that he was looking for gum. She squinted into the store as he pulled out his phone and ran to the corner.

"I'm gonna go inside too." She announced, walking away from the car.

She walked into the store, going to the aisle behind Sam where he had his back turned.

"Where the hell are you, Ruby? This isn't funny anymore. I'm all out. Stop whatever you're doing. Call me. I need more." He hissed before hanging up the phone.

Elena quickly backed away to the freezers and acted as though she was looking for a drink as she turned over in her mind what Sam could possibly need more of from Ruby.

* * *

When they pulled up to the Novak house, they got out of the car slowly, Dean handing Elena the demon killing knife as he held a shotgun and Sam held another knife and a handgun. They walked up to the door and heard a struggle happening inside. After exchanging a quick look, Dean slammed the door open and they ran in. Elena went to a man, who was holding Jimmy against the wall by the throat, and slit his throat before he could do anything, killing him. Jimmy stared at her with wide eyes but she simply turned around. The female demon stood and advanced on Sam, who dropped his weapons and raised his hand

"Go. Get them out of here." He growled, concentrating with difficulty

"Go, go." Dean urged them.

Elena ran towards Sam, facing the demon's back, as he attempting, unsuccessfully, to exorcise the demon.

"Aw. Can't get it up, can you, Sam?" She said, taunting him with a smirk.

"No, but I can." Elena said, starting forward with the knife held high.

Before she could stab her, the demon fled the host body, streaming into the air. Dean ran in and grabbed them, pulling them out to the Impala. They all jumped in Elena squeezed between Sam and Dean as the Novaks were in the backseat.

* * *

"You were right." Jimmy sighed as they sat in a mostly abandoned parking garage three towns over.

Amelia and Claire, his wife and daughter, remained in the car as the rest of them stood outside of it.

"I'm sorry we were." Dean said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I'm telling you, I don't know anything." He assured them pleadingly.

"I don't think they're inclined to believe you." Elena said.

"And even if they did, you're a vessel. They're still gonna wanna know what makes you tick." Sam threw in.

"Which means vivisection, if they're feeling generous." Dean nodded.

"I'm gonna tell you once again, you're putting your family in danger. You have to come with us." Sam tried to convince him once again.

"How long? And don't give me that 'cross that bridge when we get to it' crap." Jimmy said.

"Don't you get it? Forever. The demons will never stop. You can never be with your family. So you either get as far away from them as possible or you put a bullet in your head. And that's how you keep your family safe. But there's no getting out and there's no going home." Elena raised her eyebrows and turned to stare at Sam, surprised at the harshness of his words.

"Well, don't sugarcoat it, Sam." Dean said, staring at his brother as well.

"I'm just telling him the truth, Dean. Someone has to." Sam said, shaking his head.

* * *

Elena and Dean watched with sad looks as Jimmy embraced his wife. Suddenly Elena found herself feeling even guiltier for blaming this man for Castiel's disappearance. It wasn't his fault. She sighed as Claire slid out of the car and walked with her parents over to where Sam was hotwiring a car.

"Okay, so, uh, here's your car." He said, climbing out.

"Hey. Take care of your mom, okay, bub?" Jimmy said, kneeling in front of Claire.

"Okay." The young girl nodded, reaching out to hug her father.

Amelia and Claire watched as Jimmy got in the car with them and they drove away.

"Why is he leaving again?" Claire asked sadly.

Amelia turned to the young girl and slapped her face, causing her to cry out as she looked up at her. The woman's eyes turned black.

"Because it's just not my day, is it? You little bitch." The demon said.

* * *

Elena leaned back against the seat as Jimmy slept on her shoulder, trying not to shift uncomfortably. He'd started out on the window but eventually he'd flopped over onto her, snoozing softly. **(get it? because Elena slept on Cas' shoulder way back when? It's four o'clock in the morning where I am so that explains this ridiculous author's note)**

"What the hell happened back there?" Dean asked Sam.

"What?" Sam replied as Elena listened closely.

"You practically fainted trying to gank a demon."

"Okay, I didn't faint. I got a little dizzy." Sam said defensively.

"Well, you can call it whatever you want. Point is, you used to be strong enough to kill Alastair. Now you can't even kill a stunt-demon number three?" Dean scoffed.

"What do you want me to say about it, Dean?" Sam demanded.

"Well for starters, what's going on with your mojo? I mean, it's yo-yoing all over the place. I'm not trying to pick a fight here, okay? I just… you're scaring me, man." the older brother admitted.

"I'm scaring myself." Sam sighed before his cellphone rang and he answered it.

"Hello? Who is this?" he asked, confusion on his face.

He turned to Elena and held the phone up.

"It's Amelia." He said.

Elena reached out and shook him awake.

"Hey. It's your wife." She murmured, pointing at the phone.

Jimmy sat up and took the phone from Sam, holding it up to his ear.

"Amelia?" he questioned. "Oh, my God."

* * *

As they climbed out of the car, Elena looked at Dean for the plan.

"Alright, they're expecting you to come alone. That's exactly what you're not gonna do. Elena will go with you. These are low level demons so she'll handle them if they attack her." The older Winchester explained as Jimmy pulled on the tan trenchcoat.

"We'll work our way through the catwalks. We'll be right behind you two." Sam said.

"All you gotta do is stay calm and stall. Let us do our job." Dean assured him as they walked towards the abandoned warehouse.

"You want me to stay calm? This is my family we're talking about." Jimmy snapped, turning to glare at them.

"Listen to me, this will work. You understand? Nobody's gonna get hurt." Dean assured him.

"Yeah, whatever. Give me a minute, okay?" he said, turning to walk off.

"Elena?" Dean said.

"I'm going." She nodded, following Jimmy.

There's no way they're expecting him to come alone, Dean. You know this is probably a trap." Sam said.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I have a plan." He nodded.

* * *

Jimmy looked back at Elena with narrowed eyes before stopping and looking up at the sky.

"Castiel, you son of a bitch! You promised me my family would be okay. You promised you were gonna take care of them. I gave you everything you asked me to give. I gave you more. This is the thanks I get? This is what you do? This is your heaven? Help me, please. You promised, Cas. Just help me." he shouted.

Elena watched with sad eyes as nothing happened.

"Typical." He growled, looking down.

"He could still come." Elena said as he turned to walk into the warehouse.

"It's unlikely." Jimmy said, pulling the door open for them to walk through.

They immediately saw Amelia standing next to Claire, who was tied to a chair and unconscious.

"Hi, honey. You're home." she said, grinning at Jimmy before turning to glare at Elena.

"Listen, I'm… I'm begging you here. You do whatever you want with me, but my wife and daughter, they're just – they're not a part of this." he pleaded with the demon.

Oh, they're a big part of this, Jimmy. And P.S. You should've come alone." She said, gesturing to Elena.

"It's just Elena and I." he said, looking over at her before looking back at the demon.

"Oh, you're such a liar. Like I didn't think you'd bring Heckle and Jeckle too, hmm?" she said as three other demons dragged Sam and Dean in.

"Nice plan, Dean." Sam said.

"Yeah, well, nobody bats 1,000." Dean shrugged as Elena rolled her eyes.

"Got the knife?" Amelia asked as a demon held up the demon-killing knife to show her.

"And you know what's funny?" she said, laughing lightly.

"You wearing a soccer mom?" Dean asked.

"Is I was actually bummed to get this detail, picking up an empty vessel. Sort of like a milk run. Now look who landed in my lap." Amelia said, smirking at them.

"Yeah, well, you got us, okay? Let these people go." Sam said.

"Oh, Sam. It's easy to act chivalrous when your Wonder Girl powers aren't working, huh? Now for the punch line. Everybody dies." She said, holding up a gun and pointing it at Sam.

Elena readied herself to jump at the demon before she could pull the trigger but she turned and shot at Jimmy instead, the bullet hitting him in the gut. Elena gasped and ran forward, catching him as he fell to his knees.

"Waste Little Orphan Annie." Amelia said before leaving the room.

One of the demons walked forward towards Claire, ignoring Elena as she held Jimmy up and pressed her hand to his wound, concentrating as hard as she could. As he demon picked up a pipe and lifted it to swing towards Claire, her eyes popped open and she caught the weapon as it came down, reaching her hand out to press against his forehead. The demon shouted as a bright light emanated from his body. He dropped to the ground and the ropes suddenly snapped off of Claire as Dean and Sam began to fight the other demons.

"Castiel?" Jimmy whimpered as Claire walked past them, looking down at him.

Elena looked over at the fight in time to see Sam take the knife from the demon he was wrestling with. His face changed to relief as he sliced her throat open and stared at the blood leaking out for a moment before lowering his mouth to the wond. Claire exorcised the demon attacking Dean and he jumped up, turning in time to see Sam drinking the demon's blood greedily. Then he lifted his head, turning to see them all watching him with equally horrified looks. He turned back to the demon and drove Ruby's knife through her heart before standing up and turning to face Dean and Claire, who was possessed by Castiel.

He held out his hand and caught Amelia as she ran up behind Dean and Castiel, exorcising her easily as she collapsed to her knees. When it was over, Dean helped the woman stand up slowly as he avoided looking at his brother and his bloodsoaked face.

Claire approached them and kneeled next to Jimmy on the other side.

"Of course we keep our promises. Of course you have our gratitude. You served us well. Your work is done. It's time to go home now. Your real home. You'll rest forever in the fields of the Lord. Rest now, Jimmy." Castiel said, looking down at him as he spoke through the little girl's voice.

"No. Claire?" Jimmy whimpered, blood spitting out of his mouth as he spoke.

"She's with me now. She's chosen. It's in her blood, as it was in yours." The angel reassured him.

"Please, Castiel. Me, just take me. Take me, please." He pleaded, tears streaming down his face.

Sam, Dean, and Amelia approached them but kept their distance as they saw them talking.

"I wanna make sure you understand. You won't die or age. If this last year was painful for you, picture a hundred, a thousand more like it." Castiel explained.

"It doesn't matter. You take me. Just take me." Jimmy urged him.

"As you wish." Castiel nodded, reaching out to touch his face.

Elena backed away as a bright light emanated from both of them. She scrambled up and watched as Claire dropped to her hands and knees and a familiar look dawned in Jimmy's eyes. He wasn't Jimmy Novak anymore. He was Cas. He stood up, the gunshot wound and blood all gone. He walked forward, right past Amelia who ran to hug Claire. As he walked past Sam and Dean, the latter stopped him.

"Cas, hold up. What were you gonna tell me?" he asked.

Cas turned to face him slowly, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"I learned my lesson while I was away, Dean. I serve heaven, I don't serve man, and I certainly don't serve you." he said, turning to walk away as Dean and Sam watched with bewildered expressions.

Elena, however, wasn't just gonna let him go.

"No!" she said, rushing forward and running after him, following him out into the rain.

"Cas!" she snapped, grabbing his arm and whirling him around.

Cas stared down at her with emotionless eyes, not at all like he was when they were talking in the supermarket. This was the warrior. This was the hammer. She stared at him through the thick rain as they were both soaked through almost immediately.

"What the hell? You take a trip up to heaven and all of the sudden you don't give a shit about us?" she demanded, pointing back at the warehouse.

"I have been forsaking my angelic nature in dealing with the three of you!" he yelled back over the rain.

"You've been helping us, Cas! There's nothing wrong with that!" she argued.

"It has become a fixation and I need to step back! I am not even meant to be your guardian!" he said, gesturing to her.

"Then why have you helped me so much?" she demanded, her voice breaking slightly.

"Because Gabriel asked me to!" he said, something breaking through his emotionless exterior at the name.

"Gabriel? That's my… guardian? The archangel Gabriel?" she questioned, pushing her soaked hair out of her face.

Castiel nodded, looking as though he didn't mean to say that.

"So that's it? You did a favor for a friend?" she demanded, tears stinging her eyes and mingling with the rain as both ran down her cheeks.

"Yes, that is it!" Cas said, covering his emotions once again.

She stared up at him, disblief clear in her expression.

"Well, thanks a lot, Cas! You can go now!" she said, her voice cracking again before she turned away.

She didn't see Castiel reach out to her, hovering over her shoulder. She didn't see the emotionless mask disappear to reveal a devastated expression. She didn't hear the fluttering of wings over the rain but when she looked back, he was gone. She turned away and pressed a hand to her face, smothering a small sob. She didn't know why it bothered her so much that Castiel had turned away from him. Perhaps it was because she'd come to count on him, to lean on him for strength and help. His abandonment along with finally discovering what Sam was doing just converged in her mind and she found herself wailing loudly. Dean and Sam came walking out, standing a few feet away from each other. When Dean saw the distress and devastation on her face, he ran forward and immediately gathered her into his arms.

"Shh… it's okay." He murmured into her ear as she crumpled into his arms.

"Everything is… horrible!" she cried.

"I know, we'll fix it. I promise we'll fix it." he assured her.

* * *

Sam sat in the backseat now, staring down at his hands. Dean had the heat blasting as Elena shivered in the seat next to him, her entire body still wet.

"All right, let's hear it." Sam finally broke the silence, looking up at them.

"What?" Dean asked gruffly, staring out the front of the car.

"Drop the bomb, man. You saw what I did. Come on, stop the car, take a swing." Sam urged him.

"I'm not gonna take a swing." Dean sighed.

"Then scream, chew me out."

"I'm not mad, Sam."

"Come on. You're not mad?" Sam scoffed.

"Nope." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Right. Look, at least let me explain myself." He asked pleadingly.

"Don't. I don't care." Dean said, still staring straight forward.

"You don't care?" Sam asked, sounding put off.

"What do you want me to say, that I'm disappointed? Yeah, I am. But, mostly, I'm just tired, man. I'm done. I am just done." Dean said, shaking his head.

Elena knew the feeling. It was tiring and she was done too. She couldn't deal with anymore emotional upheaval. At least not for a few hours. Sam's cellphone broke the silence.

"Hey, Bobby." Sam said.

"Hey, you and your brother better shag ass to my place ASAP." They heard his voice say over the speaker.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"The apocalypse, genius. Now get your asses over here." Bobby said before hanging up the phone.

"What'd he say?" Dean asked, faking obliviousness.

* * *

"Well, thanks for shaking a tail." Bobby said as they approached the door to the panic room.

"Yeah, you got it." Dean nodded, his hand clenching Elena's as they stood beside each other.

Sam reached out and opened the door, looking inside.

"Go on inside. I wanna show you something." Bobby urged him.

Sam walked in as they all hung back, watching him.

"All right. So, uh, what's the big demon problem?" He asked, turning around.

"You are. This is for your own good." Bobby said as him and Dean walked forward, closing and locking the door.

Sam darted forward to the locked door, putting his hands on the bars over the window.

"Guys? Hey, hey. What?" he demanded.

Bobby closed and latched the window and turned back to them.

"This isn't funny. Guys! Hey! Guys?" Sam shouted.

Elena blinked slowly and looked at Dean, who looked emotionally drained.

"Let's go try to sleep, okay? We need it." she sighed, pulling him in the other direction towards the stairs.

* * *

**Author's Note: I know that this chapter isn't very long but I wrote it really quickly! Let me know what you think! Elena's outfits are on the profile.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Dark Alana, Nyssandria, DrawingMyHeartOut, neontreeslover, TheElegantFaerie, RHatch89, schoch26, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Meowgli, LineChokor, and slayerdiaries for reviewing!**

**To Meowgli, yes the end is coming and yes I'm making a sequel.**

**A few things:**

**1. Elena's outfits are on my profile.**

**2. Elena will suffer some unfortunate side effects of Sam's detox in this chapter.**

**3. ONE MORE CHAPTER! I'm kind of freaking out about writing the final episode, to be honest. It feels so weird!**

* * *

**Music:**

**All You Wanted – Alison Sudol & Sounds Under Radio (Elena and Dean in bedroom through Young Sam showing up)**

**Run – Snow Patrol (Elena taking shower through her running away from Cas and Dean)**

**Amen Omen – Ben Harper (Elena walking into the panic room through Elena finding Bobby unconscious)**

**The River Has Run Wild – Mads Langer (Bobby, Elena, and Dean go into the panic room to find it empty through Elena and Dean leaving for North Dakota)**

**Karma Police – Radiohead (Bobby's phone call through Sam walking out on Elena and Dean)**

**Siren Song – Bat For Lashes (Elena and Dean last scene)**

* * *

When they got to the room, Dean sat on the edge of the bed as Elena pulled off her still damp clothing. When she was down to her bra and underwear, she felt his hand take hers and she turned to see him standing there. He tugged her back to the bed and pulled her so that she was straddling his lap. His hand ran through her tangled hair and came to rest on her neck as he looked up at her. Elena sighed and let her head fall back as he began to kiss her chest, then her collarbone, then up her throat.

"Dean." She sighed, knowing that she should stop him.

He ignored her, continuing on his path to her jaw and then silencing her with his lips on hers. When he flipped them over, hovering over her and letting his hand trail up her bare leg, she put her hands on his chest and pushed him backwards.

"Dean." Elena began to talk.

"No, don't… talk. Just…" he said, shaking his head before he moved down and his lips crashed over hers.

She found herself getting carried away as his hands roamed all over her body but her mind still remained clear. She had to stop him. So she put her hands on his chest and pushed him away once more, this time getting them to sit up.

"Dean, we can't." she said, shaking her head as she stood up.

She walked to her bag and pulled out an oversized t-shirt with a pair of pajama shorts. When she turned around, he was looking at her with a mixture of sadness and surprise. She climbed back on the bed and sat across from him cross-legged.

"You are feeling… sad. Terrified. Your brother is in a shitload of trouble. This…" she gestured between them. "… is not what you need to be doing."

He looked up at her, his eyes wide and shining with tears.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked, his voice cracking and making tears well up in her own eyes.

"Please, tell me what I'm supposed to do. Because I have no idea. He's my… he's my brother." Dean barely said this before the tears began to slide down his cheeks.

Elena reached out and stroked his cheek, cradling his head in both hands.

"I don't know, Dean. I don't know what to do. We… we try to help him. We do everything we can. We will get through this and we will get Sam through this. It's gonna hurt. It's gonna be hard but we will try." She said.

"I don't know how." He admitted, his green eyes holding so much hurt and devastation that Elena felt like her heart was breaking.

"Together. We'll do this… everything… together." She said, pulling him to her and cradling his head against her chest.

Before she knew it, they were lying there with his arms wrapped around her torso and she was stroking his hair. They were both crying silently.

* * *

Elena listened from the top of the stairs as Dean opened the window latch to speak to Sam. It had been all day and they'd been avoiding the downstairs room. Sam had been shouting curses up at them the entire time.

"Okay. Let me out. This is not funny." She heard Sam demand, sounding frustrated.

"Damn straight." Dean agreed in a rough yet controlled voice.

"Dean, come on. This is crazy." Sam said in a pleading voice.

"No. Not until you dry out."

"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you. Just open the door." The younger brother said desperately.

"You don't have to apologize. It's not your fault. It's not your fault that you lied to me over and over again. I get it now. You couldn't help it." Dean said in the same calm voice.

"I'm not some junkie." Sam argued.

Elena looked down at the coffee cup she was holding in both of her hands and sighed, leaning against the doorway.

"Really? I guess I've just imagined how strung out you've been lately." Dean fired back.

"You're actually trying to twist this into some kind of ridiculous drug intervention?" Sam scoffed.

"If it smells like a duck." Dean said.

"Dean, I'm not drinking the demon blood for kicks. I'm getting strong enough to kill Lilith."

"Strong?" the older Winchester said, scoffing.

"Yeah."

"This is about as far away from strong as you can get. Try weak. Try desperate. Pathetic." Dean snapped, his careful control finally breaking as his frustration boiled over.

Elena held herself back from walking downstairs. They needed to talk without her presence.

"Killing Lilith is what matters. Or are you so busy being self-righteous you forgot about her?" Sam demanded.

"Oh, Lilith's gonna die. Elena and I will kill her. But not with you." Dean said and Elena sighed, clutching at the coffee cup.

As much as she agreed with Dean's idea that they keep Sam out of the fight with Lilith, none of them had any idea how to go about killing the demon.

"You're not serious." Sam said.

"Congrats, Sammy. You just bought yourself a benchwarmer seat to the apocalypse." Dean said.

"Dean, look… no, wait…" Sam said pleadingly as Dean shut the window cover and latched it.

Elena heard Dean's footsteps coming back towards the steps and watched as he ascended them slowly.

"Come back here. Dean! Let me out of here!" Sam shouted.

When he reached the top, he looked up at her. His expression was grief-stricken. She held out her hand and he took it.

"Dean! Let me out of here! Let me out! Dean!"

"I guess we'd better start researching." Elena said softly, feeling her heart break for the other Winchester downstairs locked away as she turned to walk away from the basement with Dean following her.

* * *

Sam slammed his hand on the door once more before turning to face the panic room. Suddenly the lights began flickering and the room shook a bit.

"Guys! Get down here! Something's coming!" he shouted, looking around with panic to see Alastair standing there.

"Hello, Sam. It's a pleasure to see you again. Looks like I have you all to myself here. Goodness. How will we pass the time?" the demon said, looking thrilled.

Sam suddenly found himself bound to the small cot.

"Don't. No, no, don't. Don't, don't. No… stop! Stop! Alastair… please. Please." He pleaded around the gag that was in his mouth.

"So polite all of a sudden. Very nice. I appreciate that." Alastair said, smirking down at him as he revealed a tray of instruments.

"No. Alastair, please. No, no…"

He screamed loudly as Alastair dug a scalpel into his gut.

"No. No. God, no! Please! Please, please. God!"

* * *

Elena watched as Bobby poured two glasses of whiskey, offering a third to her but she shook her head. They could hear Sam screaming painfully, sounding terrified. Elena let her head drop to her knees, wrapping her arms around her legs as she curled up on the couch.

"Stop! Stop!" Sam shouted.

She bit her lip hard, trying to fight back the tears that threatened to overcome her. She didn't know if it was her guardian insticts or just her attachment to Sam that made her want to run downstairs and comfort him, but it was overpowering her. She felt like her whole body was twitching in pain each time he screamed.

"How long is this gonna go on?" Dean asked.

"Here, let me look it up in my demon-detox manual. Oh wait. No one ever wrote one. No telling how long it'll take. Hell, or if Sam will even live through it." Bobby said.

The phone rang and Elena winced, lifting her head to see Bobby answer it.

"Hello?" He answered, his face automatically becoming angry. "Suck dirt and die, Rufus. You call me again, I'll kill you." he growled, throwing the phone down on the table.

"What's up with Rufus?" Dean asked, looking at Bobby strangely.

"He knows." Bobby said, shrugging as he drank his whiskey.

The phone rang once more and Bobby groaned, picking it up.

"I'm busy, you son of a bitch. This better be important." he said.

Bobby's face fell and his eyes widened. He looked up at Dean with a look that said, 'shit's going down'.

Yet another scream echoed from downstairs and Elena jumped up.

"I'm gonna go take a shower." She said, turning away to run upstairs.

Dean watched her go with before turning back to Bobby, who was hanging up the phone.

* * *

Sam gasped when he shot up, realizing that he was no longer bound and gagged. He looked down to see that his body was intact.

"The answer's yes. You're hallucinating." A voice said and Sam turned to see a younger version of himself.

His eyes widened.

"That's right, it's me. Or I mean it's you." Young Sam shrugged, striding forward with his hands in his pockets.

"I'm losing my mind." Sam said, turning to rub his head.

"Definitely." Young Sam agreed.

"What do you want?" he demanded, turning to glare at him.

"An explanation. How could you do this to me? I thought we were gonna be normal." Young Sam said accusingly.

"I tried. I did. It didn't pan out that way. Sorry, kid." Sam sighed.

"Sorry, kid? That's what you have to say? It's all we ever wanted. We were so close. You got away from Dad. You quit hunting. You were gonna become a lawyer and get married. Why'd you blow it?" he demanded.

"Look. They killed Jessica."

"Yeah. And if you hadn't run off with Dean, if you'd been there to protect her, she'd still be alive."

"I know." Sam said.

"You think Jess would want you to turn into this? She loved you. You think she'd be happy you using her as an excuse?" Young Sam questioned.

"I'm sorry. I am. But life doesn't turn out the way you thought when you were fourteen years old. We were never gonna be normal. We were never gonna get away. Grow up." Sam snapped.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe there's no escape. After all, how can you run from what's inside you?" Young Sam said.

Sam looked over to see his eyes turn yellow.

* * *

The shower didn't take away the on edge feeling and pain that Elena was experiencing. She immediately blow dried her hair and left it slightly wavy before getting dressed in a casual comfortable outfit and walking back downstairs. The screaming had stopped but that almost worried her more.

"The news. The news ain't good." She heard Bobby say from the study.

She walked in and they looked up at her and nodded before looking back down at the computer.

"This is what Rufus called about? 'Key West sees ten species go extinct'." Dean recited.

"Yep. Plus Alaska. Fifteen-man fishing crew all stricken blind, cause unknown. New York, teacher goes postal, locks the door, kills exactly sixty-six kids. All this in a single day. I looked them up. There's no doubt about it. They're all seals. Breaking. Fast." Bobby said.

Elena felt her blood run cold and looked down at her boots.

"How many are left?" Dean asked.

"Who knows? Can't be many. Where the hell are your angel pals?" Bobby demanded, making Elena wince.

"You tell me." Dean shrugged, looking up at her.

"I'm just wondering…" Bobby trailed off, looking down as they looked at him.

"What?" Dean questioned.

"The apocalypse being nigh and all...is now really the right time to be having this little domestic drama of ours?" Bobby wondered aloud.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked, her voice slightly hoarse.

"Well, I don't like this any more than you do, but Sam can kill demons. He's got a shot at stopping Armageddon." He said, looking between them.

"So what? Sacrifice Sam's life, his soul, for the greater good? Is that what you're saying? Times are bad, so let's use Sam as a nuclear warhead?" Dean demanded.

"Look, I know you hate me for suggesting it. I hate me for suggesting it. I love that boy like a son. All I'm saying is maybe he's here right now instead of on the battlefield because we love him too much." Bobby sighed.

Elena and Dean exchanged a wary look before Dean turned to walk out of the house. Elena felt another twinge and looked back at the stairs that led to the basement.

* * *

Sam sat cross-legged on the floor, trying not to concentrate on the room that was spinning around him. When he spotted a pitcher of water on the table, he tried to get up, bracing himself on the cot to do so.

"Poor baby." A soft, female voice said.

He looked up, startled, to see a blonde woman standing there in a white, blood-stained nightgown.

"Mom." he whispered.

"Sam. You look just awful." She said sadly, walking forward to sit on the cot beside him.

He laughed and shook his head, looking down at his hands.

"Let's hear it. Go ahead." He said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, sounding confused.

"You're disappointed. You never thought I'd turn out this way. I'm a piss-poor excuse for a son. Your heart is broken. Am I close?" He asked, looking up at her.

"Not at all. You're doing the right thing, Sam. What you're doing is brave. You're not being crazy, you're being practical. Sam, I am so proud of you." she said, taking his hand in hers.

"But… but Dean…" he stammered.

"Your brother doesn't understand. I was raised a hunter from a long line. We understand that there are gonna be hard choices. And we do what we have to to get the job done. Yes, our family is cursed. But you… you have the power to turn it into a gift. You can use it against them." Mary said, smiling sadly.

"For revenge?" Sam asked.

"No, for justice. I know how scared you are." She said, reaching to cradle his face.

"What's in me, Mom, it's…" Sam trailed off.

"Evil. And you know it." she said, causing a tear to fall down his cheek.

"What if it's stronger than me? Look at me. What if Dean's right?" Sam asked.

"Dean can never know how strong you are, because Dean is weak. Look at what he's done to you. Locking you in here? He's terrified. He's in over his head. You have to go on without him. You have what it takes. You have to kill Lilith." She said.

"Even if it kills me." Sam nodded.

"Make my death mean something. I'm counting on you, Sam. Don't let anyone or anything get in your way. Not even Dean." His mother said, kissing his cheek before vanishing.

* * *

When Elena went to find Dean after he'd been outside for over an hour, she was surprised to see him standing in the middle of the cars looking up at the sky.

"Come on!" he shouted.

"Dean?" she said, shivering as the cold hit her.

She ignored it, walking towards him as he continued to look up at the stars.

"Cas! I know you hear me you son of a bitch! Come on!" he shouted.

"Dean." She sighed, shaking her head.

She had her doubts that the angel would come. He made it pretty clear that he didn't give a damn about them. So when she heard the sound of him appearing behind Dean, she looked up at him with shock.

"Well, it's about time. I've been screaming myself hoarse out here for about an hour and a half now." Dean growled, glaring at him.

"What do you want?" Castiel asked, his voice emotionless as he walked towards them them.

"You can start with what the hell happened in Illinois." Dean said.

Elena stood behind him, looking at Castiel but not at his face. She had no desire to look into his eyes.

"What do you mean?" the angel asked, trying and failing to sound oblivious.

"Cut the crap. You were gonna tell me something." Dean snapped.

"Well, nothing of import." He shrugged, making Elena scoff and look down as she huddled with her arms wrapped around her torso.

She was in far too thin of clothing to be outside in 20 degree weather.

"You got ass-reamed in heaven but it was not of import?" Dean demanded.

"Dean, I can't. I'm sorry." He said, not sounding sorry at all as he turned away.

"Get to the reason you really called me. It's about Sam, right?" he asked as he walked a few steps and stopped.

"Can he do it? Kill Lilith, stop the apocalypse?" Dean asked.

"Possibly, yes. But as you know, he'd have to take certain steps." Cas said, turning back around and walking to stand before Dean once again.

"Crank up the hell-blood regimen." Dean nodded.

"Consuming the amount of blood it would take to kill Lilith would change your brother forever. Most likely, he would become the next creature that you would feel compelled to kill." The angel said honestly.

Elena fought back the urge to scream at him that she wouldn't allow anyone to hunt or kill Sam. Not on her watch.

"There's no reason this would have to come to pass, Dean. We believe it's you, Dean, not your brother. The only question for us is whether you're willing to accept it. Stand up and accept your role. You are the one who will stop it."

Elena narrowed her eyes at him, wondering where he was going with this speech.

"If I do this, Sammy doesn't have to?" Dean asked after a moment of thinking.

"If it gives you comfort to see it that way." Castiel said simply.

"God, you're a dick these days." Dean scoffed, turning to walk away.

Unfortunately, as she'd been staring at the back of Dean's head, her eyes fell on Castiel as soon as he moved. Their eyes met and she simply stared at him, mimicking his unemotional mask. They stared at each other as Dean stopped and sighed, his back facing them.

"Fine, I'm in." he said.

Elena's head snapped to him before she looked back at Cas, an accusing glare on her face. Her arms dropped from where she had them crossed and she squinted at him.

"You give yourself over wholly to the service of God and his angels?" Castiel asked as he continued to look at her.

She shook her head slowly, indicating that she would not side with him on this.

"Yeah, exactly." Dean said, still facing away from them.

"Say it." Castiel urged him.

"I give myself over wholly to serve God and you guys." Dean said, turning to face him with an exasperated expression.

"You swear to follow his will and his word as swiftly and obediently as you did your own father's?" the angel asked.

"Yes, I swear. Now what?" Dean demanded.

"Now you wait, and we call on you when it's time." Castiel said, looking at him before looking back at Elena.

Dean looked at her as well and she knew what their question was immediately. What would she do? Who would she side with? Because apparently they were picking sides and Sam was not on the side of the angels. Her eyes flickered to Dean.

"They're gonna ask you to kill Sam." She said simply.

Dean's eyes flashed to Castiel, who didn't react to this statement.

"Maybe not today or tomorrow… but there will come a time when they decide that Sam is no longer worth the trouble and they will ask you to kill him. And you just gave yourself over to them." She said, shaking her head as she turned away.

"Do you really think we're so cruel?" Castiel asked.

She turned her head towards him.

"I think you just pitted two brothers against each other without a second thought." She replied before turning to walk away.

Suddenly a flash of pain went through her and she cried out, falling to her knees, as it concentrated on her head. She clutched at it as she screamed loudly.

"Elena!" she heard Dean shout.

When she felt, not one person, but two, at her side trying to help her, she shook her head and shoved both Dean and Cas away.

"Leave me alone!" she cried, stumbling to her feet before turning to look at them with tears blurring her eyes.

"I won't let you touch Sam!" she wailed, pointing at Castiel.

"This is your guardian side talking, Elena." he said, looking at her with those wide eyes that she'd come to think she knew so well.

"I don't give a damn what it is!" she shouted, pressing a hand to her head.

"What the hell is going on?" Dean said, looking between the two.

"Sam is in pain. She is in pain. Did she explain everything?" Castiel asked, turning to look at Dean.

"Yeah, everything that you told her… in Scotland." Dean said, narrowing his eyes at the angel.

"The more she is with the two of you, the more her protective instinct takes over her. She might be feeling actual pain as Sam is suffering." Castiel explained.

"Well that's an excellent idea. Good on the angels." Dean snapped, walking forward to help her.

Elena pushed him away again and turned to run inside. Dean turned to glare at Castiel before running after her.

* * *

"Where'd she go?" Dean asked as soon as he ran in.

"Downstairs." Bobby said, pointing at the basement.

He ran after her and found her sitting on the ground in front of the door to the panic room, tears streaming down her face as Sam's screams for help filled the air. He walked to her and knelt before her.

"I'm sorry." She whimpered, looking up at him with soulful eyes.

"Shh, it's okay." He said, taking her hands in his.

"I know you're not gonna kill Sam. I know it. I just… I need to keep both of you safe. How am I supposed to do that if you fight each other?" she cried, clutching at him.

"We're not gonna fight. Elena right now the only thing we're fighing is Lilith and the apocalypse. Sam doesn't have to have anything to do with that. That's why I made that promise to Cas. I am keeping him out so that he doesn't have to be protected against something he's not a part of." He murmured, pulling her into his chest.

She let out a soft sob and he held her as she cried. When her tears finally dried up a few minutes later, she pulled away from him.

"I'm gonna stay down here. The pain is a little better when I'm closer to Sam. You should go tell Bobby what went on with Cas. He needs to know." She whispered.

He looked down and stroked her face, kissing her forehead.

"You sure you're all right?" he asked after another shout emanated from the room.

She flinched but nodded, attempting to smile up at him. It came out as more of a grimace. He helped her stand up and sh leaned against the wall next to the room. Dean leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips.

"I'll be back, okay?" he said.

"Bring some food with you when you do come back. I'm hungry." She said, smiling at him before she kissed him more thoroughly.

He managed to smile back and turned to walk upstairs. When he was out of sight and earshot, Elena's smile fell and she turned to the room, reaching her hand out to unlatch it. As she pulled the door open, she saw Sam sitting on the floor dazedly looking up at her. She closed it behind her and walked forward.

* * *

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you willingly signed up to be the angels' bitch?" Bobby demanded.

Dean looked at him with an exasperated face.

"I'm sorry. You prefer 'sucker'? After everything you said about them, now you trust them?" he said, staring at Dean with an accusatory face.

"Come on, give me a little credit, Bobby. I've never trusted them less. I mean, they come on like shady politicians from planet Vulcan." Dean said, throwing his arms into the air.

"Then why in the hell did you…"

"Because what other option do I have?" Dean interrupted, shouting. "It's either trust the angels or let Sammy trust a demon?"

Bobby sighed and leaned against his desk.

"I see your point." He nodded.

They both remained quiet, realizing that something was wrong.

"You hear that?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, that's a little too much nothing." Bobby said as they both stood and hurried to the stairs.

When they got down there, Dean panicked when he realized that Elena was nowhere to be seen. He noticed that the door was slightly ajar at the same time as a piercing scream filled the air.

* * *

"Dean!" Elena screamed, holding Sam in her arms as he writhed around on the floor.

She turned him over on his left side and looked around for anything to put in his mouth to keep him from biting his tongue. She didn't see anything and winced as she inserted her fingers in his mouth, pulling his tongue away from blocking his airways. His teeth smashed down and she cried out when he bit her hand so hard that it began to bleed. Dean and Bobby came crashing in a soon as Sam was thrown away from her and into the wall. She immediately jumped up, ignoring the pain in her hand as she looked up at him with panic.

"That ain't faking." Bobby announced as they ran forward to pry him off of the wall.

When they finally got him on the ground, Dean whipped off his belt and shoved it into his mouth.

"We're gonna have to tie him down for his own safety. Dean? You with me? Dean! Before he has another fit." Bobby shouted.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get it over with." Dean said as they hauled him up and pinned him to the cot.

Once he was tied down, Dean turned to her, taking in her bleeding hand and panicked expression.

"Are you all right?" he asked, starting forward to take her hand in his.

"Hmm? Yeah." She nodded, staring at Sam's suddenly unconscious form.

"Well heal your hand already." He said, wincing at the deep gashes caused by Sam's teeth.

"Oh, right." she said, looking down at her hand.

Once she was cleaned up, Dean turned to leave the room.

"I'm gonna stay in here." She said.

He turned to look at her with surprise.

"What?" he asked.

"Sam is tied down, he can't go anywhere. I want to be here for at least a few minutes." She said softly, looking down at Sam.

"Oh… okay. Well… Bobby and I are gonna do research." Dean said.

"I'll be up soon." She said, sliding down the wall and pulling her knees to her chest.

About ten minutes after Dean left, Sam began to revive, groaning and opening his eyes. Elena leaned forward to say something but stopped when Sam stared at the foot of the cot, his eyes wide as if he was looking at someone standing there.

"You know why." He said suddenly, making Elena stare at him with wide eyes.

There was silence for a few moments before Sam nodded.

"Of course." He said.

Elena figured that he had no idea she was there.

"Point? How about 'stop the damn apocalypse'?" Sam asked angrily.

* * *

"I'm gonna ask one more time. Are we absolutely sure we're doing the right thing?" Bobby asked as he leaned against the desk and Dean sat on the couch with his elbows on his knees.

"Bobby, you saw what was happening to him down there. The demon blood is killing him." Dean said, gesturing to the stairs.

"No, it isn't. We are." Bobby corrected him.

"What?" he asked, unsure of what Bobby was saying.

"I'm sorry. I can't bite my tongue any longer. We're killing him. Keeping him locked up down there. This cold-turkey thing isn't working. If—if he doesn't get what he needs, soon, Sam's not gonna last much longer." he said, shaking his head.

"No. I'm not giving him demon blood. I won't do it." Dean refused.

"And if he dies?" Bobby demanded.

"Then at least he dies human!" Dean shouted back.

* * *

"Just leave me alone." Sam sighed, looking at the bed with a tired expression.

Elena didn't do or say anything, just sitting there.

"No. You're wrong, Dean." Her eyes widened.

He was hallucinating Dean.

"Stop." He said pleadingly.

"Stop it." again after a few moments.

"Shut up! Just shut. The hell. Up!" Sam shouted, pulling at his chains.

* * *

"I would die for him in a second, but I won't let him do this to himself. I can't. I guess I found my line. I won't let my brother turn into a monster." Dean explained.

* * *

"Monster, Sam. You're a monster." Dean said tauntingly as he circled the cot.

"Dean, no." Sam said pleadingly, shaking his head.

"And I tried so hard to pretend that we were brothers. That you weren't one of the filthy things that we hunt. But we're not even the same species. You're nothing to me." Dean snapped, chuckling.

"Don't say that to me. Don't you say that to me." Sam cried, looking down at the cot.

When he looked up, the room was empty. He saw something shifting out of the corner of his eye and saw Elena standing up from the ground.

"Sam? It's me, Elena. I'm not a hallucination. It's really me." she said, approaching him slowly.

"No." he sad, shaking his head as he yanked himself away from her.

"Shh… it's okay Sam." She said, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

"No! Get away from me! Get out!" he yelled, the chains rattling as he scrambled to avoid her touch.

Elena stared at him with wide, tear-filled eyes before one slid down her cheek slowly.

"It's really me, Sam." She whimpered before turning to run out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind her.

* * *

When Elena ran upstairs, she looked to see Dean in the study. He took one look at her face and walked to her.

"We need to take our minds off of this." he sighed, wrapping her up in his arms.

"How, Dean? Sam is going downhill, he can't tell the difference between reality and hallucinations. The seals are almost all broken. The angels are screwing everything up!" Elena said desperately.

"Come on. Let's just… let's go lie down." Dean said, looking back at Bobby with a look that said, 'don't do anything with my brother without me'.

Once they got to the room, they collapsed on the bed and, surprisingly enough, both of them fell asleep holding each other pretty quickly.

* * *

Sam jerked awake when he heard a clicking sound. When he looked up, the handcuffs on his wrists and ankles snapped off one at a time. Then the door slowly creaked open and he looked at it with wide eyes.

"Hello?" he said loudly.

He stood slowly, walking to the door and slipping out of it.

"Someone here?" he asked quietly, looking around the basement.

When no one answered, he hurried out of the basement quietly, missing Castiel stepping out from underneath the stairs to close and lock the panic room door before he disappeared.

* * *

Elena jerked awake when she felt another presence in the room. She sat up, Dean's arm falling off of her as she looked around to see a figure standing in the darkness.

"Anna?" she mumbled.

"You need to come with me." the female angel said, holding a jacket out to her.

"Why do we need to come?" Elena asked hesitantly.

"Not 'we'. Just you." Anna said desperately.

"Anna I can't…" she was cut off by Anna walking forward and grabbing her hand.

Elena gasped and when she opened her eyes, they were standing on a large dock with several large oil tankers docked there.

"What the hell?" she demanded, rounding on the redhead.

"You deserve to know." Anna said simply, holding the jacket out to her again.

Elena narrowed her eyes at the angel before taking the jacket and slipping it on. Anna grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards an oil tanker. Before they could walk up onto it, they disappeared and reappeared on the deck facing a man who had his back turned to them. Elena immediately recognized him and really wanted an explanation as to why she was there.

"What did you do?" Anna demanded.

"You shouldn't have come, Anna." Castiel said without facing them.

"Why would you let out Sam Winchester?" she said.

"What?" Elena demanded, her eyes widening.

Castiel finally turned to look at them, unsurprised to see her there.

"Those were my orders." He said as an excuse.

"Orders?" Elena said, engraged.

"Cas, you saw him. He's drinking demon blood. It's so much worse than we thought. Dean was trying to stop him." Anna said, stopping Elena from talking any further as she stepped forward.

"You really shouldn't have come." Castiel sighed.

Elena felt something whoosh beside her and turned to see two angels appear beside Anna. A white light flashed and they were gone, leaving Castiel and Elena alone. She turned to look at him to see him looking down, ashamed.

"Why did you do this? First Sam? Now Anna?" she asked, her voice quiet as she watched him turn away.

"I…" he began.

"If you say orders I swear to God…" Elena trailed off, shaking her head.

"I think that it's time to get you back to Dean." He said, turning to walk to her.

He held his hand out, a gesture that would have seemed normal before. It's how they traveled, she held his hand instead of him pressing two fingers to her forehead like he did everyone else. Elena flinched away and turned her back.

"Why do you want to get me back to Dean so badly? Huh? It's not like you actually want me to do anything to protect them. It's just nice to be able to say that they have a guardian but you don't really want me to be one." She snapped, dropping her head.

She felt his hand touch her shoulder and the familiar whooshing of travel.

"Trust your instincts. They'll lead you to him." Cas said before he disappeared.

Elena looked up to see that she was standing outside of Bobby's house. She turned to see a car disappearing onto the road. That was Sam leaving, she was sure of it. She ran up to the unconscious form of Bobby lying on the gravel and shook him awake.

"What the hell?" he groaned, sitting up.

"Sam is gone. You must have tried to stop him." She said, pulling him to a standing position.

* * *

She watched as Bobby and Dean unlocked and opened the panic room door.

"How the hell did he get out?" Dean growled.

Elena kept her mouth shut. If she told Dean how it happened, he would be more focused on wanting to screw the angels, and Castiel, over, rather than finding Sam, which was more important.

"Maybe he had help. Room full of busted devil's traps." Bobby sighed.

"Demons? Ruby." Dean asked, looking at Bobby.

"That'd be my guess." The older hunter said.

Dean looked back at Elena and she shrugged, trying to look as confused as they were.

"How did she even touch the door?" he asked.

"You think she's got the mojo?" Bobby asked, turning away from the door to face Elena.

"I didn't think so. I don't know, man." Dean sighed, leaning against the door.

"What difference does it make? How he got gone ain't as important as where he got gone to."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing. At this point I hope he's with Ruby." Dean said, starting forward to take Elena's hand and pull her upstairs.

"Why?" Bobby asked as they ascended the stairs.

"Cause we're gonna kill her." Elena and Dean said at the same time as Bobby followed them to the next set of stairs.

"I thought you were on call for angel duty." He reminded him, stopping them as they turned their heads to look at him.

"I am on call. In my car, on my way to murder the bitch." Dean snapped.

They continued on their path upstairs.

"One thing." Bobby stopped them once again.

"What?" Dean sighed, turning to face him once more.

"Sam don't wanna be found, which means he's gonna be damn near impossible to find." He informed the older Winchester.

"Yeah, we'll see." Dean said, shaking his head.

* * *

Sam, shaking, stood up slowly and weakly as someone knocked on the door of the expensive hotel room he'd rented.

"Honeymoon suite, really? I'm flattered." Ruby said with a smirk as he opened the door.

She walked and began pulling off her jacket as he closed the door behind her.

"Did you bust me out of that room?" he asked uncertainly.

"How could I, Sam? The whole thing's engineered to bite me in the ass." She replied, walking to the bed.

"Then how did I get out of there?" He demanded.

"I don't know. I don't wanna know. You're out. That's all that matters. I'm glad you're here." She said, turning to smile at him.

"Yeah? Where the hell have you been?" he asked.

"I got here as quick as I could." Ruby said defensively.

"I mean the past three weeks. I've been calling you!" he exclaimed desperately, looking worse for wear.

"I've been pretty deep in it trying to dig out Lilith. Sometimes I can't sit around and check my voicemail. I'm sorry you're hurting. Really. I had no idea that Dean would do that to you." she said sadly, stepping forward to stand closer to him.

Sam sighed and hurt flashed through his eyes.

"You and me both." he breathed.

"You didn't book this joint just to impress me, did you?" she asked, frowning.

"Dean's gonna come after me. And he knows my habits, my aliases, everything. He knows exactly which motel I'd pick." Sam said, looking around at the expensive room.

"Hence the room." she nodded.

"Whatever it takes to shake him." Sam shrugged.

"It won't be easy. I mean, he knows you better than anyone." Ruby informed him.

"Not as well as he thinks." Sam said, hurt clear in his voice.

"You know, it's sad." She sighed, walking forward to stroke his cheek.

"What?" he asked, looking down at her.

"That things have gotten this bad between you two." she said, looking up at him with sympathetic eyes.

Suddenly Sam slammed her onto the bed and leaned over her, moving down her body until he found the knife in her boot. He slowly pulled it out, leaning up to cut her arm. She watched with a smirk as he sucked her blood into his mouth greedily.

* * *

"Police found my car. Abandoned in an alley in Jamestown, North Dakota." Bobby informed them as he walked up.

Elena was standing beside Dean as he did a few repairs on the Impala while Bobby got the information on where Sam was. She held a wrench out to him when he put his hand out for it. They were both in ratty clothing so that the grease from the car that they knew would inevitably get all over them (it always did when Elena helped him do anything with the Impala) wouldn't stain anything important. She was even wearing an old pair of cowboy boots from her horseback riding phase when she was fifteen that she happened to have brought with her.

"He's switching up. Any other cars stolen in Jamestown?" Dean asked, glancing up at the older man.

"Two. 1999 Honda Civic, blue. Nice and anonymous, like Sam likes." Bobby answered.

"What was the other one?" Elena asked.

"White '05 Escalade with custom rims. It's a neon sign." Bobby said with a chuckle, shaking his head.

"You're right. He'd never take that." Dean said, looking over at Elena.

"Which is exactly what he did." she sighed, taking the tool back from him and dropping it into the toolbox.

"You think?" Bobby asked.

"We know that kid. All right, I'll head in that direction. You stay here, ride the police databases. We gotta find him quick." Dean nodded, turning to walk in the direction of the house so that he and Elena could get cleaned up and change clothes.

* * *

"Your appetite's gotten much bigger." Ruby said as she looked over at Sam, leaning up onto her elbow.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, tensing up as he sat up.

"Sam, relax. It's okay. It's good. Just means you're getting stronger, that's all. It means you're strong enough to kill Lilith. Just in time, too, because the final seals are breaking." She said, rolling her eyes as she sat back.

"How many are left?" Sam asked.

"Three... two..." she shrugged.

"What? Where are the angels?" he demanded.

"Screwing the pooch, wherever they are. The point is, it's looking more and more like we're getting down to the final seal. And I found out something big." The demon said with a smirk.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Seal 66. It can't be broken by just any demon. Apparently, only Lucifer's first can do it." She explained, sitting up along with him.

"Lucifer's first?" Sam asked, confused.

"Demon Sunday School story. God prefers humans to angels. Lucifer gets jealous and then he gets creative. And he twists and tempts a human soul into the very first demon as a 'screw you' to God. It's what got him locked up in the first place." she informed him.

"That was Lilith?"

"She's way older than she looks." Ruby confirmed.

"Wait. So if Lilith is the only one who can break the final seal, if I get to her in time…" Sam trailed off.

"Then Lucifer never busts out of his cage. Exactly." Ruby nodded.

"Great. You figure out where she is?" he questioned.

"The bitch can hide. But I finally have a lead on someone who might be able to help us. I closed in on a member of Lilith's entourage. You might call her a personal chef." She said.

"Chef? Seriously? What does she eat?" Sam asked, frowning.

"You don't wanna know." Ruby said with a slight smirk, shaking her head.

* * *

Elena walked out of the house behind Dean with Bobby following him. They didn't bother to bring bags or a change of clothes because they only planned on grabbing Sam and dragging his ass back to the panic room.

"You kids call if you need anything? I'll call if I get any updates." Bobby said as Dean slammed the trunk open and Elena adjusted her white hat.

"Yeah, we will." Dean nodded as they got in the car.

Elena looked over at him as they pulled away from the house. He looked back at her, pausing before they pulled onto the highway.

"No matter what happens, I'll be here for you. We'll be together." She assured him, reaching out to take his hand.

"We'll be together." He sighed, nodding as he squeezed her hand back and pulling out onto the highway towards North Dakota.

* * *

"So our demon gourmet nurse. You sure?" Sam asked as he pulled on his jacket.

"She'll be there. Graveyard shift tomorrow night. Meantime, if you're gonna be strong enough to kill Lilith, you're gonna need more than I can give you now." Ruby said to him as she did the same.

Sam sighed and looked over at her, seeing her holding out a knife.

"Sam. Come on. It's okay." She assured him.

"I know I need more. I get it. I know it's okay. I just… I wish he'd trusted me, you know?" he said, taking the knife from her.

"Sorry." She said sympathetically.

"I just hope...you know, when all this is over...I hope we can fix things." he said sadly, looking down at his feet.

* * *

"Cops found the Escalade in a ditch outside Elk River." Bobby said over speakerphone as Elena held it in her hand for Dean to hear

"How far away am I?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"A couple of hours. I pulled up a weather map, made some calls. There's a town not far from there, Cold Spring. Lighting up with demon signs." The older man informed them.

"A good place to look." Elena nodded.

"Hey, listen." Bobby stopped them from hanging up.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Us finding Sam? It's gotta be about getting him back, not pushing him away." Dean glanced over at Elena at his words before glancing back at the road.

"Right." he sighed, agreeing with Bobby.

"I know you're mad, Dean. I understand. You got a right to be, but I'm just saying. Be good to him anyway. You gotta get through to him." he said.

Dean nodded at Elena.

"Thanks Bobby." She said, hanging up the phone.

* * *

Once they reached the town, Dean pulled to the side of the road at a gas station.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked.

"Going to get a list of hotels so we can figure out which one Sammy is at." He said, jumping out of the car and running inside.

When he came back out, he handed the list to her.

"Wanna pick one to start at?" he asked.

Elena scanned the list slowly.

"He's here." She said automatically, pointing to the last one on the list. Dean looked over at him and looked at her with surprise.

"The gas station guy told me that's the most expensive one." He commented.

"You don't think that's it?" she asked.

"No, I know that's it. And I'd be willin' to bet my life that he's in the most expensive room." Dean said, pulling out of the parking lot.

* * *

Their plan remained unspoken yet they both knew what it was anyways as they walked down the hallway of the top floor of the hotel. A door opened down the hall and they peeked around the corner to see Sam walking out of a room and turning to walk down the hallway the other way. Dean looked over at her and she knelt down to pull the demon-killing knife out of her ankle boot where she'd shoved it into the ankle sheath. When it was gripped in her hand, they walked to the door. Luckily, the door was left unlocked. Dean pushed it open silently and they snuck in, seeing Ruby standing at the edge of the bed. She turned just in time to see Dean launch at her.

He slammed his fist into her face but she countered with a hit of her own without hesitation. Dean wrestled with her for a moment before getting the upperhand and grabbing her arms, whirling her around to face Elena, who held her hand high to stab the knife into the demon's chest. Before she could drive it into her heart, a hand caught her arm and whirled her around.

"Don't!" Sam said, trying to wrestle the knife out of her grip.

"Stop it, Sam." She said, pushing him against the wall with her added strength, digging her elbow into his side to incapacitate him without hurting him too badly.

He gasped and let go of her and she turned to see that Ruby had taken Dean by surprise and was holding him against the wall. It was eerily reminiscent of the warehouse when they first discovered that Sam was exorcising demons with him. Elena launched towards Ruby but Sam caught her around the waist, throwing her on the bed before running to peel Dean and Ruby apart. Elena jumped up and ran into the fray once again, grabbing Ruby by the hair and ripping her back before throwing her against the wall. Sam pulled her away once again as Dean darted forward to grab Ruby again. The demon ducked under his arm and ran to stand behind Sam.

"No. Let her go. Just take it easy!" Sam said as he pushed Elena towards Dean and blocked their way to Ruby.

They both stared at Sam, their eyes darting back to the demon every once in a while.

"Well, it must've been some party you two had going, considering how hard you tried to keep us from crashing it. Well, solid try, but here we are." Dean said, swallowing hard as they caught their breath after the tussle.

"Dean, Elena, I'm glad you're here. Look. Let's just talk about this." Sam said pleadingly.

"Soon as she's dead, we can talk all you want." Dean said, pointing at Ruby.

"Ruby, get out of here." Sam said quickly.

"No, she's not going anywhere." Elena snapped, darting forward.

Sam caught her and threw her back into Dean's chest, making them both stare at him with wide eyes.

"She's poison, Sam." Dean shouted, helping Elena stand up and then rounding on his brother.

"It's not what you think, Dean." Sam said pleadingly.

"Look what she did to you, Sam." Elena said, shaking her head at him.

"I mean, she up and vanishes weeks at a time, leaves you cracking out for another hit…" Dean finished Elena's thought.

"She was looking for Lilith." Sam said.

"That is French for manipulating your ass ten ways from Sunday!" Dean shouted.

"You're wrong." He said, shaking his head stubbornly.

"Sam, you're lying to yourself." Elena sighed, trying to make him see the truth.

Sam looked up at them with guarded eyes.

"I just want you to be okay. You would do the same for me. You know you would." Dean said desperately.

"Just listen." Sam said pleadingly. "Just listen for a second. We got a lead on a demon close to Lilith. Come with us. We'll do this together."

He stared between the two, his brother and the girl he thought of as his sister, with desperate eyes.

"That sounds great. As long as it's you and me and Elena. Demon bitch is a dealbreaker. You kiss her goodbye, we can go right now." Dean offered.

Sam hesitated, looking back at the door.

"I can't." Sam sighed, making Elena's heart skip a beat.

Dean turned away, nodding and she saw the pain all over his face. Sam had just chosen a demon over his own brother.

"Dean, I need her to help me kill Lilith. I know you can't wrap your head around it, but maybe one day you'll understand. I'm the only one who can do this." Sam explained.

Elena watched them warily as Dean turned back around with an incredulous expression.

"No, you're not the one who's gonna do this." he said, shaking his head.

"Right, that's right, I forgot. The angels think it's you." Sam said with a skeptical chuckle.

"You don't think I can?" Dean demanded.

"No. You can't. You're not strong enough." Sam fired back.

"And who the hell are you?" Dean shouted.

"I'm being practical here. I'm doing what needs to be done!" Sam yelled back.

"Yeah? You're not gonna do a single damn thing." Dean snapped.

"Stop bossing me around, Dean. Look. My whole life, you take the wheel, you call the shots, and I trust you because you are my brother. Now I'm asking you, for once, trust me." Sam begged.

"No. You don't know what you're doing, Sam." Dean said, shaking his head.

"Yes, I do." Sam said, trying to appeal to Dean.

"Then that's worse!" Dean snapped.

"Why? Look, I'm telling you…" Sam said.

"Because it's not something that you're doing, it's what you are!" Dean cut him off, shouting. "It means…"

Elena winced as Dean cut himself off from saying what he almost said. It was what he'd been thinking but he'd been unwilling to say it. Was it true, though?

"What?" Sam said, knowing immediately what was going through his big brother's head too.

"No. Say it." he said, tears in his eyes.

Elena felt a lump rise in her throat when she realized that tears were welling in Dean's eyes too.

"It means you're a monster." Dean said, his voice breaking on the last word.

Sam nodded, turning away in time to miss a tear falling from Dean's eye. Elena moved to stand between them, afraid of it getting violent. She was right because as soon as she moved, Sam launched out and slammed his fist into Dean's face.

"No!" she shouted, watching as Dean slammed to the ground.

The older brother got up slowly, turning to face Sam with barely contained fury. His arm reared back and then snapped forward, his fist slamming into Sam's mouth.

"Stop it!" she cried as Dean ran forward and slammed Sam into a half wall, breaking through it easily as they collapsed onto the floor.

Sam shoved Dean off and they continued trading blows as they backed into the bathroom. Elena tried to figure out what to do as she heard glass shattering. Who did she stop? Who did she defend? Her body was screaming at her to defend them both but was the even possible? As they slammed back out of the bathroom, Sam flipped Dean onto a glass table and it collapsed under his weight, glass shattering all over the place. Sam suddenly jumped on him, choking him.

"Sam, stop!" she screamed, running forward and struggling with him to yank him off of Dean.

It was as though he'd gained strength simply by fighting Dean and Elena knew that it was the demon blood working on him. Finally she ripped him off of Dean and pushed him backwards, standing between them.

"Sam, look at me." she urged, holding her hands out to him.

He didn't look at her, instead staring past her at Dean.

"You don't know me. You never did. And you never will." He growled, turning to walk out the door.

Elena watched with tears welling up in her eyes.

"You walk out that door, don't you ever come back." Dean said hoarsely, looking up at Sam as he walked away.

Sam stopped and turned to look back at Dean. When his eyes met Elena's, he looked regretful for a moment before turning back to walk out.

* * *

Elena walked back into the room, avoiding stepping on glass and wood as she approached the bed. She held out the glass of water to Dean and stroked his hair as he drank it slowly. She'd already healed him of his small cuts and bruises. When he finished drinking it, she set it over on the bedside table and pulled off her hat, throwing it on the ground as she ran her fingers through her straight hair. Dean looked over at her with a devastated face.

"I don't want to think about it." he admitted.

"I know. I know it's painful." She whispered, stroking his cheek softly.

He looked up at her slowly.

"You… are… the most important person to me right now." He said.

She smiled sadly.

"That's not true. He could commit genocide and you'd still love your brother more than anyone or anything else." Elena said, not fooled by his words.

"Right now… he's not my brother. He's not Sammy. And there is no one, not a single person, that I'd rather be with." Dean said, looking at her with emotion filled eyes..

She looked at him as she continued to stroke his cheek.

"We'll fix this." she promised him, repeating his words at the warehouse after Castiel abandoned them.

He nodded slowly before leaning forward to kiss her. They laid back on the bed and curled their bodies around each other as their lips melded together. Dean's hand drifted down her torso and pushed her sweater up, laying on her bare skin before wrapping around her back and pulling her closer to him. Elena sighed into his mouth as her body melted into his. She pushed him away and yanked his shirt off, then pulling his t-shirt over his head. He returned the favor, throwing her sweater across the room. Then, hovering over her with his hand splayed on her stomach, he looked up at her with questioning eyes as his fingers drifted down to the button of her pants. Elena stopped him.

"I don't want this to be something that we do because you're sad, Dean." She sighed.

"It's not… I…" he said, trailing off.

She stared at him with wide eyes as she understood. Because she felt it too. But both of them were too afraid to say it. They'd lost too much, they'd lost almost everyone that they loved. They couldn't say it. But both of them knew it. Elena moved her hand away from his and leaned forward to press her lips to his.

"Okay." She murmured against his lips.

"Okay?" he asked, sounding surprised.

She drew away and looked deep in his eyes.

"Yes." She said, putting her hand on his cheek.

He slowly undid the pants button and pushed her back on the bed, his eyes telling her everything that she needed to know.

* * *

**Author's Note: Ah I'm an evil author, cutting it off there! Don't hate me! I love all of you but sometimes suspense is fun! **

**A few things:**

**1. One more chapter, I'm still freaking out.**

**2. I'm gonna do a poll, just answer in your review if you read this. Would you rather the sequel be named 'Burning Heart' after the Survivor song or 'Thunderstruck' after the AC/DC song. It's up to you.**

**3. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	31. Chapter 31

**Disclaimer: I do not own TVD or Supernatural**

**Thanks to Nyssandria, neontreeslover, Dark Alana, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, xxPaige23xx, Meowgli, slayerdiaries, schoch26, TheElegantFaerie, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, RHatch89, DrawingMyHeartOut, Hollywood17, LineChokor, and the guest for reviewing!**

**To schoch26, I'm glad someone noticed that I'm not human. ;) I'm just kidding but you really made me laugh with that comment. So much so that I think my roommates think I'm insane (but to be realistic, they already knew that I'm crazy and apparently inhuman).**

* * *

**A few things:**

**1. It's finally here.**

**2. I know a few people wanted me to kill Ruby in the previous chapter but I promise I had reasons for keeping Ruby around until this chapter. She kinda had to be here for a lot of reasons.**

**3. Elena's outfit is on my profile. One outfit for the whole chapter**

**4. IT IS A REQUIRMENT THAT YOU MUST STOP AND LISTEN TO 'CARRY ON WAYWARD SON' BEFORE YOU READ THIS CHAPTER. IT'S TRADITION, PEOPLE!**

**5. The very last scene should make everyone very very happy.**

* * *

**Music:**

**1. Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas (everyone stop and listen to this now)**

**2. Spinning Into Place – Vaccine (Dean and Elena's… *****ahem*…. scene. You know what I'm talking about)**

**3. Beauty of the Dark – Mads Langer (Ruby and Sam talk through Dean and Elena's first few minutes in angel green room)**

**4. Running Up that Hill – Placebo (Sam torturing demon through Cas hiding the door)**

**5. My Sundown – Jimmy Eat World (Sam and Ruby in car through Sam listening to voicemail)**

**6. Believer – Viva Voce (Cas banishing Zach through Cas sending them to the convent**

**7. Hells Bells – AC/DC (because I had to cause it really did come on when I was writing this part and it was just flowing out like crazy, from Sam confronting Lilith through the very last SURPRISE scene)**

* * *

**St. Mary's Convent – Ilchester, Maryland – 1972**

"Our Father, who art in... heaven. Thy kingdom come, blah, blah, blah. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from... evil." A priest smirked as he knelt at the altar.

He looked up at the cross and his eyes flashed yellow for a moment before he turned to walk down the aisle to speak to the nuns who were sitting in the pews.

"Truer words never spoken, sisters. But sometimes it seems as if it's difficult to know the Creator. Sometimes I feel, in a very literal sense, that I have been wandering the desert for years. Looking for our Father." He said, reaching out and bolting the door as he reached it and then turning back to them..

"Well, not our Father, my Father. See, he's in jail. Your dad put him there." he chuckled

The nuns looked around at each other nervously as they sensed something was wrong.

"I almost gave up hope. But, ye of little faith, because I finally found him… or at least, you know, a spot where his cage door opens. It's right here. In a damn convent, for God's sake. Life is funny." He chuckled, grinning around at them as if expecting them to understand the irony.

"Um, Father?" one of the older nuns said, daring to speak out.

"Shut your friggin' piehole, you little slut!" he growled, glaring at her before grinning once more.

"Then again, I suppose it makes sense. Folks forget my Daddy is an angel, after all. Or was. I mean, I suppose some dumb bastard stood here, felt a jolt of his holy juice and thought, I'm gonna build me a nun factory. You know? It's the right idea. Wrong angel." He shrugged as he blinked and his eyes turned fully yellow.

He drew a large knife as he looked around at them.

"So, uh, if any of you guys are the praying type, now would be a good time to start." Azazel said, smirking.

Screams filled the air.

* * *

**LEMONY**

Elena let out a breathy moan as he slid her jeans down her legs. He slid his hands up her torso afterwards, brushing over her bra-covered breasts. When he came to her shoulders, he pushed her arms over her head and looked up at her before he began kissing every surface of her body that he could find. She gripped the pillow in her hands as his lips pressed wet kisses all over the place, driving her insane as she fought to remain still.

"Dean." She finally sighed, unable to hold it together any longer.

Her entire body was tingling wonderfully but she wanted more… she needed more, they both did. He kissed up her stomach slowly, through the valley of her breasts, up her throat, to her lips. She accepted him immediately, her hands weaving through his hair as he settled on top of her, holding most of his weight back so that he wouldn't crush her. She flipped them over suddenly, straddling his hips as her hands braced her on his chest. She leaned down and began doing the exact same thing that he was doing before, peppering kisses all over his neck and torso. His jeans were quickly thrown across the room and she crawled back up his body. As she straddled his hips once more, his manhood coming in immediate contact with her heated core, he groaned and lifted himself, his hands going around her back as he kissed her intensly.

His fingers nimbly unhooked her bra and he slid it off of her arms before throwing that across the room as well. His hands weaved into her hair as he pulled her closer, their chests pressed together and her legs wrapped around him as they sat there tangled together. As he began kissing down her throat once more, his hands slid up her stomach to her breasts, his thumbs stroking the hardened pebbles softly. Elena threw her head back and let out a half whine, half moan. His lips found hers once more and he slowly lowered her to the bed once more, hovering over her.

"Dean, please…" she pleaded, looking up at him with eyes heavy with lust and adoration.

He slid her underwear off slowly, tossing them over his shoulder. As his hands drifted up her thighs, he pushed them apart gently. His fingers immediately found her womanhood, moaning with approval at the heat emanating from her. They pushed into her slowly, getting her ready, as his thumb swept over her bundle of nerves. Elena cried out and arched her back, her hands digging into the sheets of the bed.

"More! Please I need more!" Elena pleaded, her hands going to his boxers and pushing them off.

He helped her, sliding them down his legs before kicking them away and looking down at her.

"Are you sure?" he whispered, not wanting to do this if either of them weren't absolutely sure.

"Dean… I… we need this. We need each other. Things are about to get even worse and… we need something good. We need this." Elena said, pulling him down to her to kiss him thoroughly.

"You are my person… my Dean. I never want to leave you. And I want to give myself to you. I want this. I need this." she whispered, reaching down to stroke his manhood a few times before guiding it to her entrance.

"Please." She murmured, spreading her legs and looking up at him with those same adoring eyes.

He pressed his lips to hers softly as he pushed inside of her very slowly and intently. She whimpered against his lips and he drew away immediately, looking down at her with wide eyes as he saw the tears in her eyes.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked, stopping immediatley.

"No! No you didn't." she said, shaking her head as she gripped his upper arms.

"Then why…?" he trailed off, reaching up to brush a tear from her cheek.

"I'm happy. I know that sounds terrible with this whole apocalypse thing happening but… I am." She breathed, smiling up at him.

He stared at her for a moment before smiling back at her as he recognized the emotion building up in his chest.

"I'm happy too." He breathed, leaning down to kiss her cheeks before kissing her lips.

"I'm also very turned on right now… so if you don't mind." Elena said, laughing as she gestured between them.

He chuckled as well before sliding into her the rest of the way. Both of them moaned in sync, their bodies trembling with the desire that they were feeling. Dean reached up and his hands laced through hers, pulling them over her head as he began to move. It was slow and torturous at first, making them both crave more.

"Dean… please… give me more." She cried, clutching at his hands.

He leaned down and kissed her as he picked up the speed, making her arch her back and slide her hands out of his. Her arms went around his back as her legs wrapped around his waist, enabling him to go deeper and hit **that** spot inside of her. Her eyes flew open and her nails dragged down his back, making him groan.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, immediately afraid that she'd hurt him.

"No, it's good. It's… really good." He said back huskily.

She grinned and dug her fingers into his back as he continued.

"Fuck… Elena you feel so… damn… good." He said, accentuating each word with a thrust as she cried out in ecstasy.

"I could say the same for you… Mr. Winchester." She managed to get out.

She let out a particularly loud scream of pleasure and he grinned. He managed to hit the same spot in side of her with impressive accuracy each time he thrusted, making her words get lost in a mess of whimpers and moans that were getting louder and louder. She wasn't the only one. He voiced his pleasure quite succinctly, curse words mixing with moans. As each person came close to their climax, Dean leaned down to press his lips to hers. Finally, as Elena's body exploded, he pulled away and let her scream his name. Her walls clenched around him as she writhed underneath him, voicing her approval of their activities. She felt him swell inside of her briefly before he pulled out and placed his hand over his tip with wide eyes. When he'd emptied himself into his hand, he sighed and looked up at her with a slight smirk.

**NO MORE LEMONY STUFF**

"That was close." He commented.

"And entirely unnecessary." She replied with a wry grin.

"What?" he asked, looking like a lost child for a moment.

"Why do you think that I make you stop at a pharmacy every three months? I've been on birth control since I was sixteen." She laughed, sitting up as he pouted.

He turned to walk into the bathroom, avoiding the glass on the floor as his head was bowed dejectedly. Elena laughed and shook her head, reaching down and putting on her socks so that she could walk around the room and retrieve their clothing wherever they'd thrown it. She put on her own clothing as she went, throwing Dean's onto the bed. When he came back into the room, she was wearing her sweater along with her undergarments. He turned her around and kissed her thoroughly after pulling his boxers on.

"That was amazing." She murmured as she wrapped her arms around him and placed her head against his chest.

"Agreed." He said in a low voice, placing his chin on top of her head.

She looked up at him at they both sighed, their shoulders tensing up and the pleasant, happy looks in their eyes were replaced with the guarded, burdened looks that they'd both adopted. It was time to go back to real life and they both knew it.

* * *

"Sam? Your head in the game here?" Ruby asked as she walked out of the abandoned country home.

Sam paused, staring out at the endless fields.

"I'm good. Let's go." he decided.

"You okay?" She asked, looking up at him with concern.

"I just said I was." Sam shrugged.

"Look, I know hand-holding really isn't my thing... but still, Dean was wrong, saying what he said to you." Ruby said.

"No, he was right to say it. I mean, I don't blame him after what I did." Sam said, shaking his head as he looked down at his shoes.

"Well, after we're done, you guys will patch things up. I mean, you always do." Ruby said, attempting to cheer up the solemn hunter.

Sam scoffed, shaking his head.

"You're talking like I've got an 'after'." He said, turning to look at her.

"Don't say that." she said, sounding offended.

"I can feel it inside me, Ruby. I've changed... for good. And there's no going back now." He informed her.

"Sam…"

"Look, I know what I gotta do." He interrupted her. "It's okay, I'm just saying, Dean's better off as far away from me as possible. Anyways. Doesn't matter, let's just get this done with." He said, turning to get into the car.

* * *

Elena bit her lip as they stood in the kitchen. Dean was staring out the window and she was leaning against the counter as Bobby ranted loudly. Luckily, before he pounced on them, Bobby had given them a chance to get cleaned up and change clothes. But when they came downstairs, he was waiting, ready to hear what happened. They just told the older hunter everything that went down with Sam and it was safe to say that he wasn't pleased.

"Dean? Dean! You listen to a word I said?" Bobby demanded.

"Yeah, I heard you. I'm not calling him." Dean replied.

"Don't make me get my gun, boy." Bobby threatened, making Elena hide the chuckle that threatened to escape her at the obviously empty threat.

Dean turned to face him, an exasperated expression on his face.

"We are damn near kickoff for Armageddon, don't you think we got bigger fish at the moment?" he snapped.

"I know you're pissed. And I'm not making apologies for what he's done, but he's your…" Bobby cut himself off.

Elena watched Dean carefully.

"Blood? He's my blood, is that what you were gonna say?" Dean demanded, narrowing his eyes.

"He's your brother. And he's drowning." Bobby reminded him.

"Bobby, I tried to help him, I did. Look what happened." Dean argued, gesturing wildly.

"So try again." He urged.

"It's too late." Dean shook his head, turning to face the window once again.

Bobby looked over at Elena for help but she dropped her eyes to her feet. She wanted to help Sam and she would help him but Bobby was going about it the wrong way. Demanding that Dean do anything was never going to work. He had a bit of an authority problem.

"There's no such thing." Bobby argued.

"No, dammit!" Dean shouted, whirling around.

"No. I gotta face the facts. Sam never wanted part of this family. He hated this life growing up. Ran away to Stanford first chance he got. Now it's like déjà vu all over again." He growled, shaking his head as he went to sit down. "Well, I am sick and tired of chasing him. Screw him, he can do what he wants."

Elena sighed and walked forward, leaning down to wrap her arms loosely around his neck and lay her chin on his shoulder.

"You don't mean that." Bobby argued.

"Yes I do, Bobby. Sam's gone. He's gone. I'm not even sure if he's still my brother anymore. If he ever was." Dean sighed, looking down at his hands.

Elena watched as Bobby walked to the kitchen table and suddenly swept everything off angrily. Dean jumped up as Bobby got in his face and Elena really hoped that another fight wasn't going to happen.

"You stupid, stupid son of a bitch! Well, boo hoo, I am so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess! Are you under the impression that family's supposed to make you feel good?! Make you an apple pie, maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable! That's why they're family!" Bobby shouted.

"I told him, 'you walk out that door, don't come back' and he walked out anyway! That was his choice!" Dean yelled back, stomping away from Bobby to look out the window again.

"You sound like a whiny brat. No, you sound like your dad. Well, let me tell you something. Your dad was a coward." Bobby snapped.

Dean turned back to him with a clenched jaw. Bobby had taken one step too far in insulting John Winchester. Dean didn't stand for that.

"My dad was a lot of things, Bobby, but a coward?" Dean asked through gritted teeth.

"He'd rather push Sam away than reach out to him. Well, that don't strike me as brave. You are a better man than your daddy ever was. So you do both of us a favor. Don't be him." Bobby said as Elena walked to Dean to take his hand.

"Hey, stop yelling at Bobby. He is trying to help, Dean. He loves you and Sam like sons and he is just trying to help." She whispered.

Dean sighed and looked at her before turning back to talk to Bobby. When confusion dawned on his face, Elena turned as well to see that they were no longer standing in Bobby's messy kitchen. They were in an ornately decorated dining room with Renaissance art on the walls and statues spread throughout the room. They walked forward slowly with wide eyes, unaware of the presence behind them.

"Hello, Dean, Elena."

They whirled around to see Castiel there, staring at them.

"It's almost time."

* * *

Sam and Ruby were waiting in the parking garage of the hospital. They didn't have to wait long once a nurse came walking out, wheeling a newborn baby in a mobile crib. She was grinning down at it and her eyes were full black. Sam walked out and lifted his hand, throwing her against the wall. He approached her calmly, Ruby one step behind him.

"So. We need to talk." He said.

* * *

Elena watched, leaning against the wall, as Dean walked around the room with narrowed eyes. Almost as soon as he revealed himself, Castiel had disappeared, leaving them alone. She watched as Dean walked to a painting and looked up at it with an unimpressed look. As soon as he turned around, the table in the middle held a silver bowl packed with ice and beer, a tray of hamburgers, and a platter of brownies. Elena narrowed her eyes at the food as she heard the two angels appear.

"Hello, Elena." Zachariah said, looking back at her with a pleasant smile before turning to Dean.

"Dean. You're looking fit." He said, nodding at the older Winchester.

Dean replaced the beer bottle he'd been inspecting and looked at Zachariah and Castiel.

"Well, how 'bout this? The suite life of Zach and Cas." He said.

Elena smiled and shook her head slowly as the angels looked at him with blank looks.

"It's a... never mind. So, what is this? Where the hell are we?" Dean questioned, glancing around the room.

"Call it a Green room. We're closing in on the grand finale, here. We want to keep you safe before showtime." Zachariah said.

He gestured to the table and looked at Dean.

"Try a burger. They're your favorite. From that seaside shack in Delaware. You were 11, I think." He said.

"I'm not hungry." Dean said.

"No? Elena? Brownies? They're just like those ones your mom used to make." He suggested, turning to her.

She stared at him.

"I'm good." She said simply.

"Let's... bail on the holodeck, okay? I want to know what the game plan is." Dean interrupted Zachariah from offering them anything else.

"Let us worry about that. We want you... focused, relaxed. Both of you." the angel said simply.

Elena looked over at Castiel, who remained quiet as Zachariah spoke.

"Well, I'm about to be pissed and leaving, so start talking, Chuckles." Dean snapped.

Zachariah sighed and began walking around the room.

"All the seals have fallen. Except one." He informed them.

"That's an impressive score. That's... that's right up there with the Washington Generals." Dean chuckled, looking at Elena who was smiling at his taunting of the angels.

"You think sarcasm's appropriate, do you? Considering... you started all this?" Zachariah shot back, making Elena glare a hole into the back of his head. "But the final seal... it'll be different."

"Why?" Elena asked.

"Lilith has to break it. She's the only one who can. Tomorrow night… midnight."

"Where?" Dean questioned.

"We're working on it." Zachariah shrugged.

"Well, work harder." Dean shot back, glaring at the angel.

"We'll do our job. You just make sure you do yours." He nodded at the hunter.

"Yeah, and what is that, exactly? If I'm supposed to be the one that stops her, how? With the knife?" Dean asked.

"All in good time." Zachariah said vaguely, nodding at him.

"Isn't now a good time?" Elena asked, pushing herself off the wall to walk forward a few steps.

"Have faith." Zachariah sighed.

"What, in you? Give me one good reason why I should." Dean scoffed.

Suddenly the angel was standing right in front of Dean.

"Because you swore your obedience. So obey." He growled softly.

Elena looked over at Castiel with narrowed eyes as he looked down, even looking guilty.

* * *

They were in a cabin. The only light in the room was a fire flickering in the fireplace and a dim light above their heads. Sam and Ruby leaned over the demon nurse, who was laid out on the table.

"What, no devil's trap?" she smirked as she struggled against the hold that Sam had on her.

"I don't need one." Sam replied simply.

"Look at you - all 'roided up. It's like A-Rod and Madonna over here." She snickered.

"Where's Lilith?" Sam demanded.

"I'm not scared of you." she said simply.

"Yeah, you are, actually. And with good reason." Sam replied, not buying her easygoing attitude.

"Look... what's my upside? Okay, I tell you, you kill me. I don't tell you, you still kill me. I get away somehow, Lilith will definitely kill me. So where's my carrot?" she demanded.

"I think what you should be worrying about is what happens before you die." Sam said, holding out his hand and concentrating.

The nurse began to scream in agony, throwing her head back.

* * *

Elena watched as Dean paced. They were alone once more. He looked back at her before going back to pacing. This pattern was repeated for ten minutes and Elena was about to break and demand what was wrong with him.

"Ah, screw it." he said, pulling out his phone and dialing.

Elena watched with in interested expression as he held it to his ear.

"It's Sam. Leave me a message." She heard the automated message over the phone. Elena smiled softly, happy that Dean was reaching out to his brother without too much pushing.

"Hey, it's me. Uh..." he cleared his throat and looked up at Elena for help.

She quickly crossed the room and took his hand, making him nod.

"Look, I'll just get right to it. I'm still pissed... and I owe you a serious beatdown. But... I shouldn't have said what I said. You know, I'm not Dad. We're brothers. You know, we're family. And, uh... no matter how bad it gets, that doesn't change. Sammy, I'm sorry." Dean said before hanging up and sighing.

* * *

"Stop! Stop! Please!" the demon screamed.

"You'll tell me where she is?" Sam demanded, lowering his hand.

"Fine. Fine. Just... let me die." She breathed, looking up at him.

Sam stared at her for a moment.

"Deal." He agreed.

"Tomorrow night, midnight. She's gonna be at a convent… St. Mary's, Ilchester, Maryland." She sighed, her eyes fluttering closed.

"A convent?" Sam asked, skeptical.

"Lilith... She's gonna break the final seal." She said, looking up at him.

"And what is the final seal?" he questioned.

"I don't know." She breathed.

Sam lifted his hand and began torturing her again.

"Aaaah! I don't know! I don't know!" she sobbed, writhing on the table. "I don't know! I swear! Please! I'm begging you. Kill me, please!" she pleaded.

"Fine." He said, reaching out his other hand to concentrate but Ruby grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Wait. You can't." she said.

"Why not?" Sam asked as the demon's eyes popped open in surprise.

"Because we've got to take her with us. It's the final run on the Death Star, and you need more juice than I got." Ruby said, glancing over at the demon nurse.

"You promised." She whimpered.

"Sorry, sister. You're a walking, talking can of whup-ass." Ruby shrugged.

"You bitch!" she snapped.

"I know. Just can't trust anyone these days."

"Well, least you won't be able to crack me open that easy." The demon said, smirking as she settled back again.

"That so?" Ruby said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Don't forget… it's not just me you're bleeding. In fact, I think I'm gonna take a little... siesta in the subconscious… hand over the wheel for a little bit." She said, looking thrilled.

"What are you talking about?" Sam demanded.

"Cindy McClellan, R.N., come on down!" she called, closing her eyes and relaxing into the table.

Suddenly her eyes popped open and looked terrified.

"What... where am I?" she groaned, looking around as she tried to move.

"Oh, my god, I can't move. What's going on? Help! Help me, please." She said, looking wildly as Sam stared down at her in horror

"Great." Ruby snapped, annoyed.

* * *

**St. Mary's Convent – 1972**

Azazel knelt before the altar once more, the slayed bodies of nuns all around him. One of them was thrown across the altar, the blood from her slit throat dripping onto the floor.

"Father, look... I'm not exactly the praying type, but still... I made the sacrifice. I got you a bagful of nuns. So, uh... can you hear me? Can you whisper through the door?" he said hopefully.

"I'm here, my son." The dead nun's mouth moved.

"It's so good to hear your voice, Padre. I have been searching for you for so long. You have no idea. The others have lost faith. Dickless heathens. But not me." he said, grinning at the nun.

"You've done well."

"So, uh... how do I bust you out?" he asked.

"Lilith." He said.

"Lilith? Father, she's... trapped neck-deep in the pit. It won't be easy." Azazel said skeptically.

"Lilith. Lilith can break the seals." He said.

"Yeah, okay. But what do I do?" Azazel asked.

"You must find me a child. A very special child."

"What do you mean? What child?" he questioned.

* * *

"You got to be kidding me." Sam scoffed as he looked at his laptop.

"What?" Ruby asked, walking up to him.

"Get this. St. Mary's… abandoned in '72 after a priest disemboweled eight nuns." He said.

"What's black and white and red all over?" Ruby smirked.

"That's not funny." Sam said before he continued to read.

"The priest said it wasn't his fault. He said a demon made him do it. And that he even remembered the demon's name." he read.

"Yeah?" Ruby asked, walking to pack up their weapons.

"Azazel." Sam said, turning to look at her with a triumphant expression.

"Wow. So, Lilith, Yellow-Eyes… all the A-listers are paying visits. Certainly gives the joint credibility." Ruby nodded, turning to look back at him.

"As a place where the final seal goes down." Sam nodded.

"Well, it's good enough for me. Let's pack up Nurse Betty and hit the road." Ruby said, turning to walk out with the bag on her shoulder.

"Hey, maybe, um... look." Sam hesitated, stopping her in her tracks.

"What?" she asked.

"M-maybe we can find another demon." Sam suggested.

"Sam, no. That blubbery 'don't hurt me' crap… it's just an act. She's playing you." Ruby said.

"I'm not so sure." He sighed.

"Even if she's not, there's still a hell-bitch snoozing in there. I mean, come on. It's not like you haven't done this before, right?" Ruby shrugged before turning to walk out.

Sam tried to ignore Cindy the nurse's pleas as he dragged her down the stairs. It was more difficult that he could have imagined.

"No. Please don't. Just listen to me, okay? My name is Cindy McClellan. I'm a nurse in the NICU over at Enfield Memorial. I have a husband named Matthew, okay? We've been married six years. He's got to be worried sick about me. And I don't even know who you are, and I'm not gonna tell anybody anything. Please just let me go." she pleaded as he walked her to the trunk.

He opened it and she began screaming as he attempted to shove her in.

"No! No! Please, no! Please!" she cried as he put his hands on the top and slammed it closed, leaning on it as he breathed heavily and guilt filled him.

"Help!"

* * *

Elena and Dean were both frustrated and tired of being in the room for three hours now. She sat in a chair beside the table watching Dean as he circled the room for the fifteenth time. He finally stopped and looked over at a small ceramic angel statue. His hand reached out and touched the head before he tipped it right off the table, grinning over at Elena when the sound of the crash filled the room. She laughed quietly and shook her head at his immature action.

"You asked to see me?" Castiel said as he appeared, looking down at the shattered statue.

Dean whirled around and looked down at the shards on the floor with a slightly guilty look before looking back up at the real angel.

"Yeah, listen, I, uh, I… I need something." Dean said, his eyes shifting over to Elena.

She nodded encouragingly. They'd talked about this. It was the right thing to do.

"Anything you wish." Castiel nodded.

"I need you to take me to see Sam." Dean said simply.

"Why?" The angel asked, looking as though he immediately regretted giving Dean anything he wished.

"There's something I got to talk to him about." Dean said simply.

"What's that?" Castiel asked.

"The B.M. I took this morning. What's it to you? Just make it snappy."

"I don't think that's wise." He said, shaking his head as he backed away.

"Well, I didn't ask you for your opinion." Dean shot back.

"Have you forgotten what happened the last time you met?" Castiel asked.

Elena stood up at his words, unsure of whether to break into the conversation or let the two talk it out.

"No. That's the whole point. Listen, I'm gonna do whatever you mooks want, okay? I just need to tie up this one thing. Five minutes… that's all I need." Dean said.

"No." Castiel sighed.

"What do you mean, no? Are you saying that we're trapped here?" Dean demanded.

"You can go wherever you want." Castiel said.

"Super. I want to go see Sam."

"Except there." he said quickly.

"We want to take a walk." Elena said, stepping forward.

"Fine. I'll go with you." Castiel said, looking over at her before looking back at Dean.

"Alone." Dean added.

"No." the angel shook his head.

"You know what? Screw this noise. We're out of here." Dean said as they walked towards the door at the same time, their minds synced in what they were going to do without them having to say it out loud.

"Through what door?" Castiel asked.

They both turned back to him, frowning. His eyes shifted to the door and they looked to see that it had been replaced by a smooth wall. When they turned back, the angel had disappeared.

"Damn it." they snapped at the same time.

* * *

Sam sat in the passenger seat looking at his phone as Ruby sped down the highway towards the convent.

"What are you... a 12-year-old girl? Just play it already." Ruby said, referring to the voicemail from Dean.

"Mind your own business." Sam snapped.

"Let me out! Let me out!" they heard the woman's muffled screams as she thumped on the roof.

"God, I wish she would just shut up." He groaned, leaning his head back.

"Well, that can be arranged." Ruby shrugged, looking over to see Sam glaring at her. "I don't get it. All the demons you cut with the knife - what do you think happens to the host? How is this any different?"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Sam demanded.

"I know that you're having a tough time here, Sam, but we're in the final lap here. Now is not the time to grow a persqueeter." She informed him.

"Would you drop the friggin' attitude? I'm about to bleed and drink an innocent woman. While she watches." Sam snapped.

"And save the world as a result." Ruby countered.

"I don't know. I-I just... I'm starting to think... maybe Dean was right." he sighed, leaning back once again.

"About what?" Ruby asked.

"About everything." He replied.

"We're gonna see this through, right, Sam? Sam?" Ruby asked, panicked.

* * *

Elena stood by the harp shaking her head as Dean attempted to slam his way through yet another wall with a heavy bronze pedestal. It hadn't worked the last three times but he wouldn't listen to her when she told him to stop, and that he was wasting his strength. When the wall repaired itself once again, he threw the pedestal to the floor out of annoyance.

"Son of a bitch!" he growled.

Elena looked up with murderous eyes when Zachariah looked up once again.

"Quit hurling feces like a howler monkey, would you? It's unbecoming." He said, walking forward with his hands in his pants pockets.

"Let me out of here." Dean demanded, turning around.

"Like I told you: too dangerous out there. Demons on the prowl." He said.

"I've been getting my ass kicked all year. Now you're sweating my safety? You're lying. I want to see my brother." he said.

"That's... ill-advised." Zachariah said simply.

Elena jumped up and, having enough of all angels, but especially the smug one in front of them, she stomped to him.

"I am about tired of you showing up and throwing riddles at us! What the hell do you want? Why can't we see Sam? If you're not going to let us out of here, how the hell are we supposed to kill Lilith?" she demanded, getting in his face as her frustration boiled over.

Zachariah looked past at her at Dean, who shrugged with a smirk.

"You're not… going to kill Lilith." He sighed, backing away from the angry girl.

"What?" Dean growled, stepping up to stand beside Elena.

"Lilith's going to break the final seal. Fait accompli at this point. Train's left the station." Zachariah shrugged.

"But me and Sam and Elena, we can stop..." Dean trailed off and Elena had the epiphany at the same time as he did.

Zachariah sat down, waiting for them to voice their new realization.

"You don't want to stop it, do you?" Elena said, looking over at him.

"Nope. Never did. The end is nigh. The apocalypse is coming, kiddo, to a theater near you." Zachariah said proudly.

"What was all that crap about saving seals?" Dean growled.

"Our grunts on the ground… we couldn't just tell them the whole truth. We'd have a full-scale rebellion on our hands. I mean, think about it. Would we really let 65 seals get broken unless senior management wanted it that way?"

"But why?" Elena asked.

"Why not? The apocalypse? Poor name, bad marketing… puts people off. When all it is is Ali versus Foreman. On a... slightly larger scale. And we like our chances. When our side wins… and we will… it's paradise on earth. Now, what's not to like about that?"

"What happens to all the people during your little pissing contest?" Dean demanded.

"Well... you can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. In this case... truckloads of eggs, but you get the picture. Look... it happens. This isn't the first planetary enema we've delivered." Zachariah shrugged.

Elena looked over at Dean as he eyed a statue on the mantlepiece meaningfully.

"Uh, no, Dean. Probably shouldn't try to bash my skull in with that thing. Wouldn't end up too pleasant for you." Zachariah said, reading his intentions as he stood and walked to them once more.

"What about Sam? He won't go quietly. He'll stop Lilith." Dean assured him.

Zachariah inhaled deeply, nodding.

"Sam... has a part to play. A very important part. He may need a little nudging in the right direction, but I'll make sure he plays it." he said.

"What does that mean? What are you gonna do to him?" Elena questioned, eyes narrowed.

"Sam, Sam, Sam. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. Forget about him, would you? You have larger concerns. Why do you think I'm confiding in you? You're still vital, Dean. We weren't lying about your destiny. Just... omitted a few pertinent details. But nothing's changed. You are chosen. You will stop it. Just... not Lilith, or the apocalypse. That's all." Zachariah said.

"Which means?" Dean urged him.

Zachariah gestured to a painting on the wall of Michael battling and defeating Lucifer.

"Lucifer. You're going to stop Lucifer. You're our own little Russell Crowe, complete with surly attitude. And when it's over... and when you've won... your rewards will be... unimaginable. Peace, happiness... two virgins and seventy sluts. Elena… all day and every day." He said, making her glare at him with a disgusted look.

He chuckled, brushing her look off.

"Trust me… one day, we'll look back on this and laugh." he said, turning to walk away.

"Tell me something. Where's God in all this?" Dean asked, facing Zachariah.

"God? God has left the building." The angel scoffed before he disappeared.

* * *

The night guard was patrolling the convent, bored as always. His flashlight shone around the dusty, empty hallways as he did his normal sweep of the place. When he turned around, he was faced with a blonde in a long white dress.

"Howdy." She said, smiling at him.

"Lady, this is private property. You're not supposed to be here." He said, his heart pounding out of his chest at the surprise.

"But I'm here for mass. And so are you." Lilith said before two demons grabbed him and hauled him off.

* * *

Elena sat on the couch with Dean on the floor, his head leaning back into her lap. It had been a full 24 hours that they'd been in the room. They hadn't slept or ate. They were exhausted but they refused to go to sleep. She stroked Dean's hair softly as she struggled to keep her own eyes open. Both of them sat up when a whooshing noise sounded.

"What are you gonna do to Sam?" Dean demanded as soon as he saw Castiel, jumping up to walk to the angel.

"Nothing. He's gonna do it to himself." Castiel said, putting his hands in his pockets as he walked around Dean to be able to look back and forth between them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Elena asked, standing up slowly.

Castiel looked down, shielding his eyes from them.

"Oh, right, right. Got to toe the company line. Why are you here, Cas?" Dean growled, getting in his face.

"We've been through much together, you two and I. And I just wanted to say, I'm sorry it ended like this." he said, looking over at Elena before looking back at Dean.

"Sorry?" Dean scoffed.

He reared back and slammed a fist into Castiel's face, whirling around as the angel barely flinched.

"Oh." He whimpered, flexing his hand out of pain.

Elena rolled her eyes and walked forward to stand beside both of them.

"It's Armageddon, Cas. You need a bigger word than sorry." Dean said, turning back to the angel.

"Try to understand… this is long foretold. This is your..."

"Destiny?" Dean interrupted. "Don't give me that 'holy' crap. Destiny, God's plan... It's all a bunch of lies, you poor, stupid son of a bitch! It's just a way for your bosses to keep me and keep you in line! You know what's real? People, families… that's real. And you're gonna watch them all burn?"

"What is so worth saving? I see nothing but pain here. I see inside you. I see your guilt, your anger, confusion. In paradise, all is forgiven. You'll be at peace. Even with Sam." Castiel said, trying to get him to see his side of things.

"You can take your peace... and shove it up your lily-white ass. 'Cause I'll take the pain and the guilt. I'll even take Sam as is. It's a lot better than being some Stepford bitch in paradise." Dean said, shaking his head.

"This is simple, Cas! No more crap about standing there and being a good soldier." Elena said as Dean walked away.

"There is a right and there is a wrong here, and you know it." she said desperately.

Castiel turned away and Elena wondered if he was ashamed or frustrated.

"Look at me!" Dean snapped as he turned back around and forced Castiel to do the same.

"You know it! You were gonna help us once, weren't you? You were gonna warn us about all this, before they dragged you back to Bible camp. Help us… now." Dean said.

"Please." Elena begged.

"What would you have me do?" the angel said, looking up at them with tired eyes.

"Get us to Sam. We can stop this before it's too late." Dean said.

"I do that, we will all be hunted. We'll all be killed." Castiel told them roughly.

Elena shook her head and put her hands on the angel's face, turning him to face her.

"Look at me, Cas." She said, throwing away all of the anger and frustration she had at this angel.

It didn't matter now.

"If there is anything worth dying for... this is it." she said, holding his face in her hands.

He looked into her eyes with his wide, imploring, childlike ones.

"Those people… all those millions upon billions of people… they are worth dying for. Those families. Those chidlren. Everyone. They are all worth it." she said, hoping desperately that she was getting through to him.

Castiel's eyes dropped to the floor.

"You spineless..." Dean sighed, turning to walk away as he shook his ehad.

"… soulless son of a bitch. What do you care about dying? You're already dead. We're done." He growled.

Elena looked at Cas with a devastated expression as she slid her hands off of his face and took a step back.

"Dean…" he said, turning to him.

"We're done!" Dean snapped again.

Elena felt a tear slide down her cheek as Castiel looked back at her once before disappearing.

* * *

"Sam, it's time. Are we doing this or not?" Ruby demanded as they stood in front of a sign that read, **St. Mary's Convent – Two Miles**.

"Give me a minute to think." Sam said.

"Sam…" she sighed.

"Give me a damn minute, Ruby!" he yelled.

"Better think fast." She fired back.

Sam looked down and pulled his phone from his pocket, dialing his voicemail before holding it to his ear.

"Listen to me, you bloodsucking freak. Dad always said I'd either have to save you or kill you. Well, I'm giving you fair warning. I'm done trying to save you. You're a monster, Sam… a vampire. You're not you anymore. And there's no going back." Dean's voice snapped over the phone.

Ruby smirked behind him, unbenownst to him, as he snapped the phone closed, close to tears.

"Do it." he said, steeling himself as he tried to get rid of the tears.

"Thank god." Ruby groaned, walking around to the trunk to open it.

"No!" Cindy screamed, making Sam wince once before he followed Ruby to the back of the car.

* * *

They were leaning against the wall, side by side, with their hands laced together. Neither of them looked at each other or even said a word. Suddenly Castiel appeared in front of them and put his hands over their faces to keep them from saying anything. Elena stared at him with wide eyes as he glanced between them with a question in his eyes. They glanced at one another before nodding slowly. Castiel withdrew his hand and pulled the demon-killing knife out of his belt. Elena and Dean watched with wide eyes as he sliced his arm open and pushed them out of the way as he began drawing on the wall to form an angel-banishing sigil with his blood. Elena smiled at him. She felt horrible for every bad thought she'd thought towards this angel. She should have known that he would eventually come back to them just as he was before. She looked up with panic as Zachariah appeared with a furious expression

"Castiel! Would you mind explaining just what the hell you're doing?" the angel demanded as he stomped forward.

Castiel looked back at him before he finished drawing and slammed his hand into the center of the sigil. Elena and Dean shieled their eyes as a violent flash of light filled the room. They looked up moments later to see that Zachariah had disappeared.

"He won't be gone long. We have to find Sam now." Castiel said, pulling his sleeve down.

"Where is he?" Elena asked.

"I don't know. But I know who does. We have to stop him from killing Lilith." He said, turning to face the two.

"But Lilith's gonna break the final seal." Dean said, confused.

"Lilith is the final seal. She dies, the end begins." Castiel said, reaching out to place a hand on Dean's forehead and to take Elena's hand.

* * *

"Lady, sometimes you got to live like there's no tomorrow." They heard the prophet say as they appeared in his living room.

Chuck whirled around in shock, his eyes wide.

"Wait. T-t-this isn't supposed to happen." He stammered.

"Sir?" they heard a voice on the other end of the phone.

"No, lady, this is definitely supposed to happen, but I just got to call you back." he said before hanging up the phone as Elena grimaced disgustedly.

It was strange to think of a prophet of the Lord ordering prostitutes over the phone.

* * *

A demon walked up to Lilith slowly, carrying a bowl of blood from the guard. He was trembling slightly.

"Don't be afraid. We're going to save the world." She said with a grin.

She turned her back as he walked away. A deep rumbling noise sounded as she set the bowl down and she turned to see all of her demonic minions lining the hallway on the ground dead. Sam rounded the corner, his eyes narrowed as he stalked forward with Ruby right behind him. Lilith smirked and raised a hand, causing the door between them to slam shut.

* * *

"St. Mary's? What is that, a convent?" Dean asked as he flipped through Chuck's manuscript.

"Yeah, but you guys aren't supposed to be there. You're not in this story." He said, looking between all of them.

"Yeah, well..." Cas glanced over at Dean and Elena. "We're making it up as we go."

Suddenly the ground rumbled as a great white light poured through the windows and a loud roaring filled the room.

"Aw, man! Not again! No!" Chuck complained.

"It's the Archangel!" Castiel shouted to them.

"I'll hold him off! I'll hold them all off!" he said, reaching out to transport them away.

"No!" Elena screamed back, jerking away from him.

"Send Dean! I'm going to stay here with you!" she shouted, not knowing why she said that.

After he just rebelled for them, she had to protect Castiel. She just had to. He was their angel.

"No you can't! You have to go! Just stop Sam!" he shouted back.

"I can help you!" Elena argued, shaking her head.

"Elena you can't!" Dean yelled.

"You can't tell me that! I will do what I'm going to do and I'm staying with Cas!" she shouted, turning to look at Dean.

Cas' hand slipped into hers before she could help it.

"Go!" he yelled as she looked back at him with horror.

"No!" she screamed as he transported them away.

They apppeared in an empty hallway and they knew that they were in the convent. Elena leaned against the wall with a devastated expression.

"He's gone. The archangel…" she mumbled.

"Come on, Elena. We'll find Cas later. He's still alive, he has to be. But right now we have to help Sam." Dean said, sliding his hand into hers.

She looked up at him and steeled her expression, looking at knife that Castiel pushed into her hand before he sent them there.

"Okay." She nodded, putting it in her belt.

* * *

Sam entered the sanctuary easily, flinging out a hand and throwing Lilith into the altar, pinning her to it. Ruby turned to see Elena and Dean run around the corner. She smirked at them and held her hand out, slamming the doors closed to block them as Sam raised his hand to Lilith.

"I've been waiting for this... for a very long time." he breathed, sounding exhilarated.

"Then give me your best shot." Lilith said with a grin.

Sam concentrated and threw his power at her. She cried out in pain as light emanated from her body.

* * *

"Sam!" Dean shouted, slamming on the other side of the door.

"Sam!" Elena cried at the same time as she attempted to use her added strength to slam it open.

Nothing was working, Ruby had a more powerful hold on the door than they'd imagined.

"What are you waiting for?! Now! Sam, now!" they heard Ruby scream.

* * *

Lilith laughed at Sam as he faced the door, hearing Dean and Elena cry out to him. He turned to face her with narrowed eyes.

"You turned yourself into a freak. A monster. And now you're not gonna bite? I'm sorry, but that is honestly adorable." She taunted, laughing at him.

He glared at her and raised his hand again. His eyes turned fully black as he concentrated on his power in full force. Lilith screamed and convulsed as the power hit her in wave after wave, her body glowing and flickering. At last, she went limp and Sam's eyes went back to normal as she hit the ground, her eyes wide and empty.

* * *

Elena watched as Dean grabbed a pedestal and began slamming it into the door to break through it. She continued on her own assault on the thick wooden doors.

* * *

"What the hell?" Sam said as blood began trickling out of Lilith's body to the floor.

"I can't believe it." Ruby said breathlessly as they watched the blood begin to form a circle.

"Ruby, what's going on?" Sam demanded, looking over at her.

"You did it. I mean, it was a little touch-and-go there for a while, but... you did it." she looked up at him with a grin.

"What? What… what did I do?" he asked, panicking.

"You opened the door. And now he's free at last. He's free at last!" she said like a battlecry.

"No, no, no. No, he… Lilith… I stopped her. I killed her!" Sam said desperately, in denial.

"And it is written that the first demon shall be the last seal. And you bust her open." Ruby said fervently, looking thrilled.

Sam put his hands to his head as he backed away from the circle of Lilith's blood.

"Now guess who's coming to dinner."

"Oh, my god." He whispered.

"Guess again." Ruby chuckled.

* * *

Elena finally grew frustrated and yanked Dean away from the door before closing her eyes and summoning up as much strength as she could.

* * *

"You don't even know how hard this was! All the demons out for my head. No one knew. I was the best of those sons of bitches! The most loyal! Not even Alistair knew! Only Lilith! Yeah, I'm sure you're a little angry right now, but, I mean, come on, Sam! Even you have to admit… I'm… I'm awesome!" she shouted gleefully.

"You bitch. You lying bitch!" He growled, thrusting his hands at her.

Instead, he collapsed to his knees, clutching at his head.

"Don't hurt yourself, Sammy. It's useless. You shot your payload on the boss." She breathed, kneeling in front of him.

"The blood... You poisoned me." he snapped.

"No. It wasn't the blood. It was you... and your choices. I just gave you the options, and you chose the right path every time. You didn't need the feather to fly, you had it in you the whole time, Dumbo! I know it's hard to see it now... but this is a miracle. So long coming. Everything Azazel did, and Lilith did. Just to get you here. And you were the only one who could do it." she said, stroking his cheek.

"Why? W-why me?" he stammered, devastated.

"Because... because it had to be you, Sammy. It always had to be you. You saved us. You set him free. And he's gonna be grateful. He's gonna repay you in ways that you can't even imagine." She said, smiling at him.

* * *

Elena's eyes flashed open and Dean stared at her with shock as he saw a flash of blue in them. The doors flew open suddenly and he turned to look at them with surprise as Elena proceeded to walk through them. Ruby looked up and turned as she walked up to her.

"You're too late." The demon said, stumbled backwards to press herself against the wall.

"I don't care." She growled, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her on the floor before she ripped the knife out of her belt and lifted it high.

Ruby gasped with shock as she brought it down into her heart.

"That was for Sam, you bitch." She snapped, watching with hardened eyes as the demon's body flashed with light.

She ripped the knife out of her heart and stood, watching as her head fell to the side and the light faded from her eyes.

When she looked up, Sam and Dean were standing there watching her. Dean turned to Sam as she walked up to them.

"I'm sorry." He said brokenly, looking between them.

Elena stared at him for a moment before throwing her arms around him.

"You're okay. That's what matters." She whispered so that only he could hear.

Suddenly a brilliant white light shot out of the ground as she pulled away. Her hands slid down to clutch at both brothers' hands.

"Sammy, let's go." Dean said, pulling them in direction of the door.

"Dean... he's coming." Sam said, stopping short to stare into the light.

They all stared at it for a moment.

"Come on!" Dean shouted, finally succeeding in yanking them away from the light.

They ran towards the doors but they slammed shut just as they reached them. Dean stared at Elena for help, expecting her to the do the same thing she did before. She looked back helplessly before she shut her eyes to concentrate. There was too much going on. A high-pitched noise filled the air as more and more light filled the room. They all fell to their knees, covering their ears. Dean and Sam instantly threw themselves over her even though she was supposed to be their guardian. Elena screamed as pain pounded in her head and the light enveloped them.

* * *

It was over all of the sudden. Elena no longer felt Dean and Sam huddling over her. She looked up to see that she was in a stylishly decorated living room. A man was standing with his back to her. She whirled around a few times, dismayed to see that the brothers were nowhere to be found.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded as she stared at the man's back.

He turned with a wry grin, looking very confident in himself.

"You must be Elena. I've heard you're a… firecracker." He said, sounding amused.

"I said, who the hell are you?" she growled, stepping forward to glare at him.

"Gabriel, at your service." He said, bowing low before standing up and popping a small red lollipop into his mouth.

* * *

**Author's Note: Holy crap on a cracker, it's over. At least this part is, anyways. Whew. Now onto the next part everyone. But a few things first:**

* * *

**Thanks to:**

**Raven176 (my very first reviewer!), slayerdiaries, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Crh, nluvwithemmettcullen, chiwi, Beautiful Lie 5105, Limetka.111, . , helenamtavares, MrsMaeveSalvatoreMikaelson, DreamfulSin, neontreeslover, Colleenrawr, Thera-Rocklynn, SweetCheeks94, cdsnow, LilyNightShade, Bee, arizonagirl181, diehardromantic, Dark Alana, AxAxD, Meowgli, Krissie, TheElegantFaerie, thehoodedface, louiseeMont, LineChokor, DrawingMyHeartOut, Andreinne, Chung60988, Nyssandria, MaddAlice, AmhFluffy, Hollywood17, RHatch89, Bry Elizabeth M, DreamSinful, mandyv, PoisonedViolet, Dreaming while awake, RachReadsAlot, Nicole0203, IgnitingFireworks, JMHUW, Pypera, xxPaige23xx, schoch26 and to every guest who reviewed! I love you all.**

**To all of my faithful readers, I love you as well. You are all amazing and inspire me to write even more for you!**

**I hoped you all enjoyed it as much as I did. I'll post a chapter after this that lays out the details for the sequel. See you on the other side. :)**


	32. NEW PART

I've posted the first chapter of the new part. After adding up the poll, 'Burning Heart' by survivor won out.

Here's the summary:

Sequel to "Hell's Bells", with Lucifer risen from the cage and both angels and demons involved in the apocalypse, Elena is put in a difficult situation when they discover that Dean and Sam play an important part in the final battle as she grows ever closer to both brothers and their rebellious angel, Castiel. Dean/Elena Rated M for language, sexual content, and violence

Here's the link

http **colon slash slash **www **dot **fanfiction **dot **net **slash **s **slash **8907228 **slash **1 **slash **Burning **dash **Heart

**READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! **


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